Today I received valuable feedback. I will try to indicate the problem in computer lingo.
Human mouth represents a physical interface through which we can transmit messages (information) between two or more people (point-to-point or point-to-multipoint topology). It serves as a transmitter (TX).
Let’s use physical interface RS-232 as a computer counterpart, or analogy, to the mouth.
In order to transmit some information across communication channel, you need to select a proper communication protocol. For mouth, it’s speech / language, and on RS-232 line we could use serial protocol or Modbus.
Other people’s ears serve as a receiver (RX). Similarly, other devices listen on the physical RS-232 interface to detect signal changes on the line and receive data.
In computer terminology, we define the term symbol rate (simplified as bitrate or baudrate); it’s given in bauds per second. Similarly, we can define a transfer rate for our mouths, for example our base unit could be the number of words per minute. By the way, I think that our mouth is one of the slowest human interfaces. Maybe just typing on a keyboard is slower…
And now imagine what happens if one device transmits at baudrate set to 115,200, but others listen at a rate set to only 100,000 baud? Information will be lost.
With people, it’s similar. If one speaks at a rate of 400 words per minute, but others listen at a rate of 300 words per minute, a large amount of the information gets lost and the resulting message is distorted.
Today I found out that I have to deal with this issue. Most people have their transfer rate set much lower than me and can’t keep up. In short, when I start talking about a topic I’m passionate about, I speak very rapidly, and my stream of words has no end.
But the interesting thing is that it doesn’t come to me as I speak too fast. From my point of view, other people think a little bit slower than me.
What’s the solution? I need to match the transfer rate with others. I will have to learn to speak less and to speak slower. And since my stream of thoughts is generated at a higher rate, there’s a risk of overfilling the input speech buffer. But I’ll deal with it somehow 🙂
If you ever feel that you are not catching up with me and you are missing words, please do interrupt me, and I will know that I should slow down. This is the only way I will learn to control it.
Thanks for your understanding, cooperation, and I hope the IT references were entertaining for you. Computers are in many ways inspired by the real world.
