Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Please talk concepts, name product names.

There used to be comedy routines back in the 1970s (yes, I am that old) that made fun of daytime soap operas. (For you younger folks, don’t worry, you didn’t miss anything as almost everything on television these days is a soap opera.)

Anyways, the comedians would read the TV Guide (another artifact of the prior millennium) descriptions of the shows, “Sally confronts Dave about his past with Sarah while Bill and Don finally sign their contract even though Bill knows he will double cross Don and agree with Sam.”

Audiences laughed hysterically (we laughed at odd things back in the 1970s). Who in the world were these characters who only had a given name and no family name? How could anyone keep these one-name-only characters straight?

Silly, right?

Well, today we do the same in technology (mis)communication. I read a post today about Google combining Duo and Messages into Meet. I guess this is significant, but seems to be the 2020 version of “Bill will double cross Don and agree with Sam.”

Explain the concepts. Put the product names in parentheses. Think before speaking (communicating). Please.