I was working on visualizations of cycle time for my other blog (how long each item of work takes over time). That’s when I realized I needed to create a conditional formula in my spreadsheet.
Conditional formulas are if statements. With my software background, I think in if statements. (If then, else other.) So, I have no trouble with thinking in conditionals.
Also, I use spreadsheets a lot in my business. But up until yesterday, I had successfully avoided creating my own conditionals. Because every other time I’ve tried, I get the feeling I’m not so smart. And there’s no hope for me. (There are good reasons for that: only the people who already understand the topic can read the documentation.)
However, I found a page that described what I needed. After only ten or eleven tries—yes, even with the documentation—I finally succeeded. Then, I explained it on my post to the people who might need the same explanation as I did. I hope I made my readers feel smart. I could only do that because I felt smart about the topic.
How Smart Do You Feel About the Topic?
I took too many math classes where the teacher said, “I don’t need to explain more about this. You can use this as an exercise for yourself.”
There was one memorable class where I raised my hand and yelled, “But I don’t understand! And you didn’t explain it! I’m not a stupid person, but I don’t get it! Now stop right there and explain it to us!”
He glared at me, but all the other students started to murmur and said that they didn’t understand the topic either.
As he worked through the example, we all realized this salient fact: he didn’t understand the topic either. He felt less smart. But, together, in class, we worked it out. At the end, we all felt smart(er) about the topic. (I’m not sure I felt smart, but I understood how to study it from there, so I improved from less smart to smart enough.)
How we communicate our expertise matters.
How Do You Communicate Your Expertise?
As a writer and speaker, I try to explain my experience in ways the other person can understand. That means I use stories, examples, and, yes, step-by-step instructions. (I even wrote a writing secret about making the reader feel smart.) I try to start with empathy for their concerns and congruence for their experience.
Do I always succeed? Absolutely not! But I do succeed more often because I practice. Practice allows me to reach most of the people most of the time. And when they don’t understand, they can ask a question or comment on my post. That’s what’s missing from a lot of online help—no ability to say, “Can you please go back to step 2, because you lost me between step 1 and step 2.”
The more we consider our various audiences as people with different experiences or different considerations, the more likely we are to make people feel smart. And avoid inflicting the less smart feeling on them.
I still don’t want to do more spreadsheet conditionals, but I think I have ways of learning now. That makes me feel smart.
That’s the question this week: What makes you feel smart and what makes you feel less smart?