[kthejoker2]

I'm a consultant, been on thousands of calls with customers, partners, colleagues ... after all this time it is still truly astounding how many people wait to talk instead of listen, and cannot or will not exhibit professional empathy and curiosity.

It truly is just not in our nature.

[testmasterflex]

By nature we choose the path of least resistance. Because it’s easier if possible. It costs less.

We are also always trying to navigate the world constantly, and talking is a way to test our world view against other people. This is why we talk.

So; Talking (articulating the world view) and hopefully getting a affirming response to that is less expensive to our system than throwing away that paradigm and learning a new one.

[catwind7]

I agree with the first part of what you said, but I don't think plain listening is a "new paradigm", albeit I'll grant that it's probably a skill that can be improved.

to circle back to the original topic of understanding the problem, a big part of that is being observant and attentive to the needs of users. In that context and using your framing of this in terms of cost and resistance, I agree that simply talking and stating opinions is far easier than shutting up, talking to users, and gathering real information about what they actually want

[catwind7]

it really sucks and I feel it's gotten worse with zoom. Sitting in retro meetings in the past year I've definitely noticed an uptick in people just talking and not actually responding to what someone just said. very frustrating.