[Gllug] 10 reasons engineers hate the phone...

[Nix]

On 22 Oct 2009, Hari Sekhon verbalised:

> I just saw this and just had to share it...
>
> http://industrialinterface.com/blog/2009/09/03/10-reasons-engineers-hate-the-phone/ 

> Because engineers are always thinking about something else while
> people talk at them, they rely on visual cues to know when it’s their
> turn be polite and respond.

What? Has the stereotype of the autistic geek died a final death? I
know *I* don't rely on visual cues at all: indeed I avoid eye contact
unless utterly unavoidable. (That's not to say I don't despise phones.)

The problem with phones is that they are screaming interrupt signals
which you have to answer *before* you know the importance of the thing
at the other end. If someone emails you, it's easy to tell: if someone
walks up to you and asks, you can tell after their first sentence or
two. But the phone is like someone walking up to you and starting their
conversation by yelling HEY! repeatedly until you respond, without
paying the least attension to whether you're doing something else,
talking to someone else, and so forth.

The phone is simply *impolite*. It's *un-English*.
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