SEX. 

Okay, now that I have your attention, let's talk about communication.

Oh, wait. Fun fact. When I did talk about sex, on average I had almost 400 page views a day, but any other topic I had about 4 page views.... WOW. 

IT'S NOT ABOUT THE NAIL!

Okay, I love this video because it is so true. I hope you laughed.

So, what's the deal with communication? 

  Thoughts and feelings are encoded, then they are expressed in whatever form the mind encoded them in. Then, the other individual decodes them in a way they will understand. This is where miscommunication takes place. The individual then processes what they decode into thoughts and feelings.  Encoding and decoding is a process, and the better you know someone, the better your coding skills. It's a good thing it is a process and that we all don't just say the first thing that pops into our minds, at least some people don't. Imagine how your interactions would be different if that was the case. I would be screwed. 

Communication is not all verbal. In fact, only 14% of communication is. Nonverbal communication is 35%  and tone of voice is 51%. 

This is why communicating over text is so difficult. Communication cues that are so important to coding are not happening. 

Turns out we, as humans, suck at communicating. We are scared of being vulnerable so we let others do the decoding. 

If someone says, "I like you". Most people are like, "what does that mean?", "MAYBE THAT I LIKE YOU". 

Sarcasm... to say something but mean another. Sarcasm has so much potential for misunderstanding. But why do we use it? Sarcasm is a way of putting up walls; to avoid telling the truth. 

Challenge: Really try to understand others while communicating. Don't jump to conclusions. Try to understand what they are encoding and try to decode the best you can.