It brought me back to something I learned when I worked for a trucking company. We were on the receiving dock and there was this really old-fashioned software on these old computers and there was a guy showing us how to use them.
You might as well be speaking Klingon
The person that wrote the computer guide, was not very good at explaining things and I distinctly remember one instance where in the manual, it would say press "P1". Meaning to the people that read it, press the letter P and the number 1. So the new people were pressing P1 wherever it said to do that in the manual. This guide had been written by an employee and nothing was happening. The person that wrote the guide was off, so we had all of these confused new people that didn't know what to do.
They called me over and I wondered if she had meant to just press the number 1 key, but the supervisor wouldn't let anyone touch the computer, fearing we would mess something up. So we lost an entire day.
Now finally I got to speak to this person and I asked her about it. I said well, "we're pressing P1 and nothing's happening" and she said "no you were supposed to press the number key 1." I told her she needed to write it like you're talking to someone who's new and you should have just simply written press "1" and everyone would have understood. The guide was also filled with contradictions and gave users opposite instructions in the same paragraph.
And that's difficult when you're trying to teach someone something for the first time and you can't remember what it was like when you were a new person who didn't know anything about the subject. I think that's what's important when it comes to explaining DeFi with new people who don't know what it is. Since the whole thing was a mess, I offered to write a new guide that almost anyone could understand. I'd repair all of the contradictions, break everything down into steps and improve the overall readability.
She refused.
Admitting that the entire text was a jumbled mess, she said that if I did all that, no one would need her to interpret the guide for them. In short, she was justifying her job. They'd given her a small office and she reveled in having everyone come to her. Management didn't want any changes and that was that.
Another time, I worked for Verizon. The site supervisor was explaining our job structure and immediately launched into using phrases like "MCLECS and CCLECS" and all manner of acronyms and industry jargon. We're all looking at each other wondering what in the hell she's talking about, she was losing everyone as she's used to speaking to others inside management and didn't know how to talk to new people.
Seeing everyone was too afraid to say anything, I raised my hand to cut her off. Speaking plainly, I said she was using so much "industry-speak" and assuming we all knew what she was talking about, when in fact, no one did. I asked her to think back 20 years ago when she was brand new and knew nothing. Explain things to us while keeping that in mind. Later on, she thanked me as everyone was terrified of her and people rarely corrected her. It drove mutual respect and she kept that in mind going forward.
That's just two examples, there are many others.
I think to me, the question is what sort of audience are we looking for? I keep hearing that we want to bring in masses of new people so we're targeting new users as well as advanced users?? However, when I read these guides for instance, many of them will start off with metamask and they'll use that phrase as if they're talking to one of their friends who may have been on the blockchain for years. Videos I've watched assume you already have that up and running, these are crypto-buddies talking to other crypto-buddies. Other guides only cover a piece of the puzzle, then tell you to go out and find the rest.
We're sending people into a maze and saying it's easy.
One guide to rule them all
Basically, they're talking on an advanced level, and not speaking to the new people. I've said that what we really need is "One Guide to Rule them all", that starts at the very beginning. There should be two links: beginner and advanced, with the beginner section written as if the person knows nothing at all and provides step by step instructions. We'll walk them through, like a videogame on YouTube, with screenshots showing everything they need to do, STEP BY STEP. When completed, we'll hand the guide to a panel of people who have never done anything like this before and see if they can get through it on their own. A group would then make recommendations for improvements.
Can your guide reach Joe Six-Pack? Do you want to?
A Joe Sixpack is an average, working-class American male. He is often characterized—sometimes positively, sometimes negatively—as a guy who isn't very highly educated, who likes sports, and who enjoys putting back a couple of beers.
If we don't want to do that, then we need to admit that we're not trying to bring in the masses at all and we're in fact only trying to reach other experienced blockchain experts of which there is a finite amount. If that's what we're trying to do let's just be honest about that on Leofinance and Hive, otherwise we're never going to reach Joe six-pack with the language we're using as the phrases and lingo are not user friendly.
I think what might be helpful is if you think back to when you were new to the blockchain and you didn't know what it was and you were trying to find out information about it without knowing any of the lingo or any of the phrases. As for me, after spending much of the week trying to get through all of this, I ran out of time. A busy student, I'd waded through endlessly confusing posts and videos, then realized that I had to get back to regular life. So I won't be able to join you guys on this ride. I think when you write a guide or you record a video, keep those moments in mind and write for the public. I think if we do that we'll be able to hit our goal of bringing in the masses and they will understand us and join us.
Thank You So Much!
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photo credit: 1, 2, 3, 4
(Joe Six-Pack quote from Google)