{"id":35,"date":"2005-02-07T05:13:20","date_gmt":"2005-02-07T09:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/2005\/02\/07\/communicating-through-a-sieve\/"},"modified":"2005-02-07T05:13:20","modified_gmt":"2005-02-07T09:13:20","slug":"communicating-through-a-sieve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/2005\/02\/07\/communicating-through-a-sieve\/","title":{"rendered":"Communicating through a sieve"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s easy to discuss communication as though it were an external
\n<\/span>service, provided by tools and channels outside ourselves.  But
\nmost communication successes and failures depend on memory,
\nself-control, rhetorical skill, confidence… all traits which, though they
\nproject through different media with different fidelities<\/span>, begin with the mind.<\/p>\n

For now, let me take a stab at memory<\/span>.  Those of you with  perfect or near-perfect recall,
\npitch, or face-name association, help me out when I falter.  <\/p>\n

Memory acts in bizarre ways.  It is wholly unreliable at times,
\nyet we depend on it for safety<\/span>, continuity<\/span>, and sanity<\/span>. 
\n(Well, sometimes
\nI am certain that we depend on the combination of memory with some
\nexternal feedback loop with the rest of the world.)  At times it
\nis not there on demand, and at other times it comes to you unbidden.<\/p>\n

When I was a toddler, my parents once asked me what I wanted to drink,
\nand I replied “a martini<\/span>“.  This amused them for months.  They rarely drank, hated martinis, and couldn’t imagine where I
\nhad heard the word.  I can’t imagine either, but I bet I
\nheard it exactly once (while my father was communing over his daily
\ncrossword puzzle, perhaps?) and part of my mind happened to think of it
\nthen.  What I am <\/span>pretty sure of, is that the word popped naturally to mind.  And I’d also bet I had hundreds of
\nopportunities to answer similar questions, before such a question and
\nsuch a random memory came together.<\/p>\n

Tonight, while minding my own business in the kitchen, that same part
\nof my mind said, butting into a quiet train of thought about what to do
\nwith my noodles, “parenchyma<\/font>“.  Hmm, I thought, what a funny thought to have.  But there it was, lingering in my mind’s rear-view mirror.  “parenchyma<\/font>“.  (read on…)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s easy to discuss communication as though it were an external service, provided by tools and channels outside ourselves.  But most communication successes and failures depend on memory, self-control, rhetorical skill, confidence… all traits which, though they project through different media with different fidelities, begin with the mind. For now, let me take a stab […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[206],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-la-mod"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}