---
title: "Communication is key"
url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2003/9/2/communication-is-key.md"
canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2003/9/2/communication-is-key.html"
published: "2003-09-02T12:11:00"
updated: "2003-09-02T12:11:00"
tags: ["Off Topic"]
author: "Roy Osherove"
description: "“ ...Also, I've recently started to try to really concentrate on what my friends and family are saying when they start conversations with me while I'm working. (Previously I would continue working, giving a grunt now…"
usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)."
license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
---

# Communication is key

By Roy Osherove September 2, 2003 In [Off Topic](https://osherove.com/blog/category/off-topic)

**Historical article** · Originally published September 2, 2003; technical details may be outdated.

“_...Also, I've recently started to try to really concentrate on what my friends and family are saying when they start conversations with me while I'm working. (Previously I would continue working, giving a grunt now and again, as necessary.) This little thing has made a big difference. Of course, lots of folks way smarter than I already know this stuff, but to a geek who only learned how to communicate with other humans relatively recently, this is deep thinking!_”

\[[Chris Sells communicates](http://www.sellsbrothers.com/spout/#Communication_Is_All)\]

Oh. Been there. I too need to start listening to my phone conversations and stop typing more while the most important people in my life talk to me. It's stupid and I'll start trying **now**. I bet this is a big problem for a lot of folks here as well..

## More in Off Topic

[All posts in Off Topic](https://osherove.com/blog/category/off-topic)

- Sep 4, 2003

    ### [Congratulations Lior!](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/9/4/congratulations-lior.html)

- Sep 3, 2003

    ### [RLRT htpd tscdrb gntst](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/9/3/rlrt-htpd-tscdrb-gntst.html)

- Sep 2, 2003

    ### [GSM decrypted](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/9/2/gsm-decrypted.html)

- Sep 1, 2003

    ### [A better disposable email](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/9/1/a-better-disposable-email.html)


---

## About the author

**Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery.

### Sites

- [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership.
- [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts.
- [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin.
- [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model.
- [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps.
- [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes).

### Social

- X: https://x.com/royosherove
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osherove/

### Contact

- Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7

### License

Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/