[doonesbury]

Agree. In the face of institutional inertia - here crossing industry and academic fields - your starting point is when I see a fly I use a canon. It is extremely difficult to budge. As so the usual reminder: the first 51% of communication is repetition

[mehrdadn]

> the first 51% of communication is repetition

Is this a famous saying? It sounds nice but I hadn't heard it before. (And Google doesn't pop up anything obvious.)

[doonesbury]

That's my own turn of phrase.

[hinkley]

I have found that the repetition usually only works if it comes from multiple sources. It's the primary reason I encourage the 'new guy' to take their "this doesn't make sense" questions up the chain of command or to the groups we collaborate with.

One, I hate to crush a spirit, although I'm just sending them to someone else to do it. Two, about one time in ten they come back with a preliminary roadmap to a solution.

I can tell Steve until I'm blue in the face that this code is nuts and get nowhere, or I can send three other people to tell him once and finally he'll take it seriously.

I don't think it's malicious, I think it's a combination of basic human psychology with learning strategies. Sometimes you have to shop for new instruction because the perspective your teacher brings simply doesn't resonate. Each person reinforces the neural connections and phrases it a little differently (perhaps especially with new people, because they are fresh off the street and don't use our jargon yet?)