Good at programming, bad at communicating

I can’t remember how I originally found the link (was it in someone’s tweet?) but I managed to find it again in order to share it here. The message may seem silly in retrospect, but I think it was enlightening. The article is called Sometimes, The Better You Program, The Worse You Communicate. The author writes that:

[…] good programming practices are directly opposed to good communication practices.

In bullet form:

1. D.R.Y. Does Not Apply.
2. Humans don’t mean what they say.
3. Compilers don’t need to see an example.
4. Programs love definitions; Humans get flummoxed.

From now on I will try to repeat myself more often, act on what people mean and not what they say, give more examples and avoid definitions. Except when programming!