Ah, my son, you're showing your age. Yes, I well remember those days of wonderful gadgets. I've got some of the oldest in a box of good junk that I'll dig out in a few years when my grandkids get older, and are interested in "historical" computer stuff. That box of "junk" would no doubt make fascinating work for archeologists.The early days were the best. Really useful reference pamphlets, miniature circular slide rules (before calcul ators got cheap enough to be giveaways) clocks, umbrellas, capacious and durable bags, and all kinds of imaginative toys to delight the heart of a gadgetophile. My wife has inherited a number of rulers with see-through scales for different pitches of monospaced fonts that she finds handy for designing embroidery.) Slowly these downsized to pocket knives and those pocket-clip type screwdrivers.The Age of Pens was ushered in by double-enders that had a highlighter on one tip, and a felt-pen for labeling floppies on the other. I've still got a three-pointed triangular high-lighter -- obviously impossible to use -- but I've kept it as a reminder of the creativity of those days.Pens and mechanical pencils segued into Post-it notes. My wife finally told me not to bring any more home. There was a brief but intense flirtation with refrigerator magnets. I was neverquite sure what one was supposed to do with them. Stick floppies to the filing cabinet?

But, Herbert, those days are gone. No free floppies, no statio nery, no keychains, no cheap digital watches with a Kool-Aid colored green strap. The security pass vendors are no longer willing to make you up baggage tags. Gone are the decks of playing cards with pictures of electronic components on them. No more will we see the clip-on book lights.

Nope, trade shows aren't what they used to be. Even the "entertainment" is harder-edged and pushier than it used to be. (Remember the booths that actually brought comfortable chairs with them?) Clever little giveaways will be one more tall tale to tell our grandchildren about. Like Internet E-mail without spam.

Robert

Dear Robert:

Thanks for your letter. It really brought back memories. I just dug out one of those three-pointed highlighters from my nostalgia box. It has green, pink, and yellow. Still works! I once had a co-worker who actually used one of them to highlight his documents. I could never figure out the code -- why par ts of a document were highlighted in one color versus another. What was really bad would be when I received a photocopy of one of his highlighted notes. All the supposedly good parts were totally unreadable. Fortunately, he and his highlighter left us a few years back.

Your column " Serving Food For Thought " prompted me to go to InformationWeek's Web site and review the correspondence between you and the many readers who responded. While reading the letters and your responses, I remembered something that happened to me about four years ago that I feel relates to the issue of communication.

I was the IT support person for a group of testing laboratories within my company. Valvoline is a regular client of this lab facility. One day a Valvoline salesman was visiting one of the lab managers. The salesman and the manager were planning a series of R&D tests to be run on a synthetic motor oil that Valvoline was developing. I got involved in this meeting because our lab manger was having difficulty printing an Excel spreadsheet the salesman had requested.

As I was working on this problem, I asked the salesman a question that had puzzled me for a long time: "Why is synthetic motor oil so much more expensive than regular motor oil?" Well, the salesman proceeded to wax poetic about how you can "baby your car with synthetic oil" and how "synthetic oil is like liquid silk," etc., etc., etc. Yes, he explained in colorful terms the many benefits of synthetic oil, but I still had no idea why it cost so much more than conventional motor oil.

After the salesman and our lab manager wrapped up their meeting, I asked our lab manager the same question. He responded by saying, "It requires approximately four times the energy to produce synthetic oil as it does conventional motor oil." My question was answered.

My reason for telling this story is to point out that it's not j ust techies who don't listen and can't effectively communicate. Sales people are often used as the examples of effective, customer-centered communication. However, in this case, the customer (me) was a techie, and the supposed expert in communication (the salesman) flunked. Both techies and non-techies have communication problems. I'm not saying that everyone should pattern their communication skills after us techies -- God forbid! But I am saying that there needs to be some recognition that non-techies often need as much improvement as techies on their communication skills.

Craig Russell
Systems Engineer
Ashland Petroleum Company

Dear Craig,

You are absolutely correct. I don't think the problem is particularly based on an individual's profession. I think it is rather that people, including your salesman, like to answer questions by providing the answer to the question that they think you should ha ve asked, rather than the one that you did ask. The salesman was so eager to explain to you the value of the synthetic motor oil that he never got around to explaining why it cost more Ñ- if he even knew. A really good communicator worries about you getting the information you want in the form that you can assimilate it.

As I was reading your column "Serving Food For Thought," I started thinking to myself about those chaps who sent you the letters arguing that communication skills were unimportant. I am a relatively young IT professional (I'm 28), but I realized many years ago that communication skills were as equally difficult to master, if not more so, than technical skills. Maybe if more technical schools would stress the importance of communication skills along with technical skills, we would have more success in explaining "technical stuff" to our non-technical colleagues. Thanks for ano ther enjoyable column.

Richard Murphy
Systems Administrator
EDS

Dear Richard:

You have a good point. Should universities and professional schools teach verbal and written communication skill courses with as much emphasis as they teach math and science? I for one, think so, but I know that a lot of people disagree with me. Many of these folks have taken technical degrees in order to get away from all of that sort of stuff, the way that some literature or fine arts majors avoid math like the bubonic plague.

I'm a Fred. I know my technical skills are excellent, but my people and communication skills are lacking. I am in awe of some of the people in our office. They seem to be able to handle people situations with very little effort.

You made the right choice in your decision not to promote Fr ed. Communication and people skills are a must. No matter how good your technical skills are, if you can't deal with people, you will fail as a leader.

Still trying,

Bill Reynolds
Monsanto Canada Inc.
Winnipeg Mb. Canada.

Dear Bill,

You made yourself perfectly clear to me. Hey, keep at it. If you want to be able to communicate better, you will. Read a few books on it and take a couple of courses. I've mentioned some potential ones of each in the past in this space. Just keep in mind a few key thoughts:

1. People tend to judge us by what we say and do. We judge ourselves by our own intentions.
2. Work hard at listening to what people are saying before trying to give them answers.
3. Don't ever treat them as if they are dumb. They will never forgive you for that.

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