You are Not the Teacher: Career-Limiting Belief #12

Many engineers and technologists are enamored with their discipline. For them, engineering and science are the foundations for making sense of the world. Along with this belief is the corollary that everyone else needs the same level of technical prowess in order to make sense of the world. Those engineers often fall into the trap of sounding like they are giving a class-room lecture on the technical matter. Engineers choose to believe that the decision will be made solely on the engineer's concept of truth. This belief lets over-zealous engineers evangelize a bit on technical issues, not understanding that the engineering details are not required for others to make decisions. In this way, when communicating with non-technical people, the engineer, technologist, or technical manager must be sensitive to different audiences and their level of technical prowess.