Re: DTV antennas?

On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:04:16 -0700, Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:56:45 -0700, JosephKK <quiettechblue@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

My worst experience was that i had to read my comments to another
engineer before they could understand them. The experience was
disgusting, the other engineer had a PE license. Functional
illiteracy is rampant, as is innumeriacy.

Not illiteracy. The problem is that different people have different
ways of learning things. Some do best if they read it from a book.
Some of today's computer addicted kids only learn when delivered via a
CRT or LCD. Some people have to have hands on experience or it
doesn't sink in. Others have to have it lectured to them. Still
others get it best via videos (infotainment). I've seen some that
will not believe anything, unless it came from someone with
substantial credentials and proven credibility. It varies
considerably and can also change over a personal professional
lifetime.

I have customers that are quite intelligent and probably have a
correspondingly high IQ. However they often just can't read
instructions on a computer screen. I find myself reading the manual
or the screen to them on the phone. Sometimes, I walk them through
what most would consider a simple ritual (such as copying digital
photos from the camera to the drive to the DVD). I've previously
attempted to "educate" them in different ways of learning new things,
and have always failed. My guess(tm) is that once you've developed a
preferred method of information transfer, all other atrophy into
uselessness.

Incidentally, I've been told that about 90% of tech support questions
are answered in the documentation or web pages. That implies the 90%
of the customer base has some form of written or on-screen learning or
communications problems.

Kinda reminds of a project manager that could only communicate via
written (or emailed) memos. In person, he was a disaster.

Incidentally, one of the better tech writers I dealt with, had a
serious speech impediment (stuttering) and required that everything he
heard be repeated exactly once. He never got it the first time as he
had to be deliberately paying attention. Yet, his writings and
apparently his readings, were superior.

This person i described is a degreed electrical engineer regularly
doing the work of reading, editing and developing contract
specifications as a core component of the daily job. The few people
who cannot develop the relevant skills should reconsider where in the
engineering world their energies would best spent.

I am well aware of visual / audible / kinesthetic learning styles, and
they do not have to be mutually exclusive. Though there usually is a
dominant mode, suppressing other modes is usually a conscious choice.

.

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