I do this with emails. ADHD not austism. I’ll throw this out as a suggestion:
Amazon, for its many faults, has a distinct and effective approach to writing. Put a short summary/objective paragraph at the top, detail needs/design/whatever, alternatives, whatever supporting information in an appendix, and give everything headers so you can easily find what you want. The idea is to make it pyramid shaped: the important information right at the beginning and more detail the further you go down. Someone reading it can just stop reading when they need to.
I’ve seen documents that are like 10 pages of ‘real’ content and a couple hundred appendix pages. I wouldn’t go to this extreme in personal communication, but might help realize what needs to be kept or not.
Also bullet points are fine. It baffles me they aren’t considered ‘real’ writing.
The trick I’ve learned is: numbered or lettered lists of things that require action or replies. Everything else is context. The list helps focus their attention.
Eg:
Blah blah blah blah
To put a contract in place, we will need the following information from you:
(1) System configuration,
(2) Start and end date
(3) Contact info for person receiving the shipment, including phone and email
(4) Contact info for the person being invoiced, plus any notes you require on the invoice.
But, don’t go overboard with how short the summary is, and avoid having appendices to appendices. For some people, going down the appendix rabbit hole is much harder than it would have been if it was laid in order that this pyramid is built.
Had lots of arguments about this with my ex, actually. If, there’s was some topic that went, say, A+B=C, I would tell her about C first, and, if she didn’t know it already, she’d be asking “the what now?”, so I had to explain that it’s was the result of A and B, both of which she would likely have no idea about either, so had to ask about each again. Couple layers deep she’d grow tired of asking, we’d lose track of the conversation and I’d continue on to ramble about the implications of C on D, while she grew visibly frustrated as she was missing crucial parts of the discussion.
She herself on the other hand, tended to build up to everything she had to say from afar, probably because she was such a bookworm. She would explain A and B in great detail first, then how they combine together to result in C, and then what that C is, exactly. And my ADHD ass would be like “yeah, yeah, yadda-yadda, know this, know that”, and then blank out and miss out on the point entirely. Honestly, should’ve just paid more attention to her and we’d probably would’ve never broken up.
But, we’d often have miscommunications because I under-explained my intentions or things that I was never asked about, so she’d have to fill in the blanks, and was often completely wrong. Even when I did provide the supporting information, it wasn’t anything like the neat pyramid she was building, it was more like a hole straight down the depths of hell and then off to the sideways into the subway line. Kind of llike this exact message, that I’ve written as a short train of thought first, but then rewritten and rearranged most of the sentences, expanded on them, and then rewritten again, but can’t for the life of me gather enough attention to see it all the way through (Sorry about that, trying really hard on this one)
The point is, communication is hard. I still think that going from the top of the information pyramid rather than from the bottom is a superior approach, but I now do realize that I can’t expect people to ask questions indefinitely. So I try to go a couple layers deep after the initial point and then back again, so that people used to both ways of communicating are comfortable.
You are using storytelling to convey a concept of a challenge, with different approaches where neither is suitable for everyone. A few easy to follow paragraphs that i enjoyed reading. You did well. (no ADD here)
One thought: as this is about serialising multi-dimensional information – did you ever think of drawing up such relations, as a mental helper scaffolding?
One thought: as this is about serialising multi-dimensional information – did you ever think of drawing up such relations, as a mental helper scaffolding?
As in, with a notepad or in front of the whiteboard? I usually run out of space and bump into the edges very quickly with those
I do this with emails. ADHD not austism. I’ll throw this out as a suggestion:
Amazon, for its many faults, has a distinct and effective approach to writing. Put a short summary/objective paragraph at the top, detail needs/design/whatever, alternatives, whatever supporting information in an appendix, and give everything headers so you can easily find what you want. The idea is to make it pyramid shaped: the important information right at the beginning and more detail the further you go down. Someone reading it can just stop reading when they need to.
I’ve seen documents that are like 10 pages of ‘real’ content and a couple hundred appendix pages. I wouldn’t go to this extreme in personal communication, but might help realize what needs to be kept or not.
Also bullet points are fine. It baffles me they aren’t considered ‘real’ writing.
The trick I’ve learned is: numbered or lettered lists of things that require action or replies. Everything else is context. The list helps focus their attention.
Eg:
Blah blah blah blah
To put a contract in place, we will need the following information from you:
(1) System configuration,
(2) Start and end date
(3) Contact info for person receiving the shipment, including phone and email
(4) Contact info for the person being invoiced, plus any notes you require on the invoice.
(5) …
Huh. That’s a good idea and I do that sometimes, I’m now realizing.
But, don’t go overboard with how short the summary is, and avoid having appendices to appendices. For some people, going down the appendix rabbit hole is much harder than it would have been if it was laid in order that this pyramid is built.
Had lots of arguments about this with my ex, actually. If, there’s was some topic that went, say, A+B=C, I would tell her about C first, and, if she didn’t know it already, she’d be asking “the what now?”, so I had to explain that it’s was the result of A and B, both of which she would likely have no idea about either, so had to ask about each again. Couple layers deep she’d grow tired of asking, we’d lose track of the conversation and I’d continue on to ramble about the implications of C on D, while she grew visibly frustrated as she was missing crucial parts of the discussion.
She herself on the other hand, tended to build up to everything she had to say from afar, probably because she was such a bookworm. She would explain A and B in great detail first, then how they combine together to result in C, and then what that C is, exactly. And my ADHD ass would be like “yeah, yeah, yadda-yadda, know this, know that”, and then blank out and miss out on the point entirely. Honestly, should’ve just paid more attention to her and we’d probably would’ve never broken up.
But, we’d often have miscommunications because I under-explained my intentions or things that I was never asked about, so she’d have to fill in the blanks, and was often completely wrong. Even when I did provide the supporting information, it wasn’t anything like the neat pyramid she was building, it was more like a hole straight down the depths of hell and then off to the sideways into the subway line. Kind of llike this exact message, that I’ve written as a short train of thought first, but then rewritten and rearranged most of the sentences, expanded on them, and then rewritten again, but can’t for the life of me gather enough attention to see it all the way through (Sorry about that, trying really hard on this one)
The point is, communication is hard. I still think that going from the top of the information pyramid rather than from the bottom is a superior approach, but I now do realize that I can’t expect people to ask questions indefinitely. So I try to go a couple layers deep after the initial point and then back again, so that people used to both ways of communicating are comfortable.
You are using storytelling to convey a concept of a challenge, with different approaches where neither is suitable for everyone. A few easy to follow paragraphs that i enjoyed reading. You did well. (no ADD here)
One thought: as this is about serialising multi-dimensional information – did you ever think of drawing up such relations, as a mental helper scaffolding?
As in, with a notepad or in front of the whiteboard? I usually run out of space and bump into the edges very quickly with those