RE: lurkers and lurking

Subject: RE: lurkers and lurking
From: Jim Shaeffer <jims -at- spsi -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2002 17:07:51 -0400


Jan Henning asked:
> I guess it boils down to, are you more interested in having a good
> experience or in avoiding a bad experience.

The human answer to this is "avoiding a bad experience."
Risk avoidance is usually stronger than the drive to grow and
develop. If you buy Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the need to be
safe and secure is 'pre-potent' over any drive to learn and develop.

So, as technical writers, we start with the known and build to the
unknown or start with the simple and build to the complex. We want
to build on a safe and secure base of knowledge and not scare our
audiences away.

This is also why, as John Posada indicated, the good educators do
not threaten and do not take retaliation.

The best educators are part of a learning community that encompasses
students as fellow learners. Learners who emerge from such communities
have learned to be secure in their own skin and learned the value of
applied ignorance. These people (and those who have learned the same
things in the 'school of hard knocks') are ready to engage in the
discourse of a community like TECHWR-L.

Jim Shaeffer (jims -at- spsi -dot- com)


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