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    <title>communication &amp;mdash; blog.nohup.io</title>
    <link>https://blog.nohup.io/tag:communication</link>
    <description>Pouya Tafti&#39;s personal blog</description>
    <pubDate>Fri, 01 May 2026 21:30:21 +0000</pubDate>
    <item>
      <title>Transparency and language</title>
      <link>https://blog.nohup.io/transparency-and-language?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[People sometimes say &#34;transparent&#34; when they really mean &#34;opaque&#34;.&#xA;&#xA;Hiding something that (you imagine or wish) the user shouldn&#39;t care about is not transparent.&#xA;&#xA;Maintaining an interface contract, so that the user doesn&#39;t have to worry that you are changing things &#34;behind the scenes&#34;, has obvious benefits.&#xA;&#xA;But there is no change without a difference. &#xA;&#xA;MCAS was not a &#34;transparent&#34; feature of the Boeing 737 Max.&#xA;&#xA;Stretching words so far that they meet their complete opposite doesn&#39;t help clarity.  Confused thinking can lead to bad decisions.&#xA;&#xA;Orwell wrote about political language, that it was designed to &#34;give the appearance of solidity to pure wind&#34;.&#xA;&#xA;Sometimes language, intentionally or not, may aspire to give the appearance of clarity to gibberish. ;)&#xA;&#xA;But no one has the time or patience to read.  And reading much of what is written (this text being a case in point ;) ) may well result in regret for the irretrievable time lost.&#xA;&#xA;So we aim for catchy idioms, soundbites, bullet points, and visuals, over thoroughness and detail.&#xA;&#xA;Patience is a lost virtue.  Impatience for results is the name of the game—doing a million things at once, but having no time to do one right (or to do nothing, which, as it were, may also inspire creativity).&#xA;&#xA;#communication #marketing #userexperience]]&gt;</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>People sometimes say “transparent” when they really mean “opaque”.</p>

<p>Hiding something that (you imagine or wish) the user shouldn&#39;t care about is not transparent.</p>

<p>Maintaining an interface contract, so that the user doesn&#39;t have to worry that you are changing things “behind the scenes”, has obvious benefits.</p>

<p>But there is no change without a difference.</p>

<p>MCAS was not a “transparent” feature of the Boeing 737 Max.</p>

<p>Stretching words so far that they meet their complete opposite doesn&#39;t help clarity.  Confused thinking can lead to bad decisions.</p>

<p>Orwell wrote about political language, that it was designed to “give the appearance of solidity to pure wind”.</p>

<p>Sometimes language, intentionally or not, may aspire to give the appearance of clarity to gibberish. ;)</p>

<p>But no one has the time or patience to read.  And reading much of what is written (this text being a case in point ;) ) may well result in regret for the irretrievable time lost.</p>

<p>So we aim for catchy idioms, soundbites, bullet points, and visuals, over thoroughness and detail.</p>

<p>Patience is a lost virtue.  Impatience for results is the name of the game—doing a million things at once, but having no time to do one right (or to do nothing, which, as it were, may also inspire creativity).</p>

<p><a href="https://blog.nohup.io/tag:communication" class="hashtag" rel="nofollow"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">communication</span></a> <a href="https://blog.nohup.io/tag:marketing" class="hashtag" rel="nofollow"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">marketing</span></a> <a href="https://blog.nohup.io/tag:userexperience" class="hashtag" rel="nofollow"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">userexperience</span></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
      <guid>https://blog.nohup.io/transparency-and-language</guid>
      <pubDate>Tue, 25 Jun 2019 14:55:37 +0000</pubDate>
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