Some of you are pretty smart. So you understand the difference between simple and complicated, right? So why complicate things for the sake of complication?

My Dad used to say that habit is a five-letter word that can dictate your life. Indeed, it does — especially in technical professions. It’s why most things are almost impossible to describe to the layman. Poor layman, nobody remembers to fill him in. Or is it a layperson? You get the point.

Imagine spending 50+ hours a week speaking in latin medical terms, Java acronyms or Linux system jargon. Now imagine turning around and telling a 5th grader what you did at work that week. Not so easy, is it?

You’re used to your dialect. It’s burned into your head. But that doesn’t mean you can’t escape it in order to reach the middle ground with people who aren’t up to their necks in the same sort of shit you always find yourself in.

Pull yourself out of the muck for a while and remember how to speak like a normal person. Leave out the big words, particularly in technical discussions that don’t have room for a thesaurus or world almanac. Use simple metaphors. Explain things using real-world examples.

People don’t need to hear your completely misplaced word-of-the-day exercises in order to understand your point. And if you can’t explain it in simple terms, then maybe you don’t understand what you’re trying to explain after all?

Eschew obfuscation, assface.