The following is a Farcaster conversation between my friend Les and I about communication. How does one evaluate communication? What is the essence?
Les:
Does anyone ever talk about the low vs. high energy of the internal team's startup chatter?
I don't mean hype, I mean simply communication e.g. feels draggy, responses are low effort, long, distracts etc. obvi red flags but more so wondering if anything is out there in terms of the 'hype exec' vs 'ship exec' vs 'idk exec' etc.
Samuel:
to me communication is the only way to express anything. In the end it's a means to an end. In a startup that end should be to be the best at what you set out to do.
For that one needs to
1) Communicate to be aligned on what the thing is you set out to do
2) What it means to be the best
3) How to approach it
4) The rules of engagement (e.g. how the startup operates, "moves")
if you take these 4 basic understandings that need to be communicated, then the communication itself needs to match the answers and inteded answers by the founders 1) personal opinion 2) opinion as a group of founders if multiple
Applying this to a sample startup with a "hype exec" would look like "oh yeah we're taking over the world, we'll be this big bla bla" but then lack communicating "how to approach it". That mostly falls short, if the exec communicates the how as well the hype exec could be very well suited.
Same for the other communication types you mentioned. the means of communicating shall align with the goals + actions
Les:
But we’re talking about humans, some deeply flawed, others just flawed, humans. This sounds too rules-based for them.
If I was building with Bryan Johnson with a perfect sleep score and nighttime erection metric, I’d get it. But not everyone is living that life yet.
I do however strongly agree it all boils down to communication style.
Samuel:
The flawedness is what makes communications interesting and a talking points. Otherwise we'd just call each others APIs and be good and have no communication struggles.
What I tried to do is distill my thoughts into somewhat of a thought pattern so that assesments are possible, which the aren't if one goes by "vibe" as vibe is highly subjective and can't be compared besides by individuals with similar vibes (See what I did there lol)
Some further thoughts
Language and the experiences one goes through emotionally shape the character. It's part of the upbringing and often outside of parenting, though parents certainly influence langauge, the environment and emotions. That basis is what may define the individual human being.
Take that to a group of indidivual humans and they need to communicate. Signs do not carry as much information as language, so the development of language and a common understanding of it is what allows for these groups of humans to have high information exchange rates.
Abstraction levels of languages
Language structures are your default reaction. German is precise, so a Germans instinct is to be precise, tidy and organized. It's part of the language.
Though it's more then that it's also culture. Language and culture interplay.
For example the german language context and culture are embedding to my instincts. I grew up in Germany, I did not learn English until I was at the end of primary school and then learnt over time.
If your deaf that default is blank.
Someone that has a default language they grew up with they will go through that process of their intuition and refer meanings to new word in other languages to their default language. Like a translation in their head to interfere meaning.
