We come in peace.

It's a phrase used in sci-fi and it has become a cliché for when humans land in another planet or a different territory. Usually, "we come in peace" is depicted with a hand gesture. If my memory serves me right, this phrase is also in the Voyager spacecraft sent to the far-flung reaches of outer space.

I was a young professional once, and in my first job I learned the importance of proper communication, particularly with people outside of my field--marketing people, operations people, front-liners--since speaking with them about my field felt like I'm speaking an alien language. This reminds me of the phrase since I almost wanted to say "I come in peace," when dealing with them, because for some reason I felt a little hostility for people in my field--information technology.

"Geeks", "Nerds", "Weirdos"... Terms that typically describe IT people in my younger days. A lot of acronyms, jargon, and whatever uncommon terms were always said when speaking with IT people. There are always two sides to this: on one side, I felt like I sounded smart when I define the acronyms and use the jargons; on the other side, I was always frustrated when people I'm talking to don't seem to get what I mean.

Seeing that I don't get understood by what I really mean, I started to learn explaining things in "layman's terms". I heard the term from my non-IT manager, but I didn't get any explanation as to what it really means. It was my IT manager who taught me the real meaning of the phrase.

My manager taught me: "Think of it this way: these people don't understand a thing of what you're trying to say, so say it in a way they'll understand." Being the brilliant mind that I am, I didn't get what he said at first. It took me a while to really shift the way I talk, when I witnessed my manager in a committee meeting with the CEO and COO. Hearing his choice of words, I thought he was speaking... how do I put it, too normal?

It was something like "The user can either access the Internet or use the system, but not both at the same time." Rather going into details of networking or the Internet or whatever, my manager chose to use the simplest terms for that situation. The CEO and COO understood him without further explanation and questions from the two. The young me was impressed since as a student I'm used to being asked for more info, and being understood without need for further explanation is impressive for me.

As time went by, my manager used various day-to-day work scenarios to teach me how to better my communication skills. He challenged me to simplify how to tell non-IT users an IT situation and use less technical terms in my emails. I started to "normalize" my language both written and spoken, and use technical terms only as needed. I got so much practice in my year under my manager that until now I like to say that I still practice the same normalization in my day to day.

"We come in peace." I am not an alien, I can speak human. I'm too human, in fact, that even when I'm a young IT professional, I brought one quality that most IT professionals never had: I can write better than most. I don't know... Maybe it's because of how I was trained in university and in my first job or how my manager taught me how to simplify things; or maybe it's because I'm just interested in writing (more on writing, less of speaking). For some reason, I just write better than most colleagues I had. Maybe I was just lucky? Or maybe I was just at the right place at the right time.

My writing skills weren't of much use in my second job, since I was mostly doing code and programming applications. There's a person assigned to do admin work such as writing memos or emails. In terms of writing I didn't have much, but I do some of my teammates back then commenting "you write like you're not a programmer". I know it's just flattery but hey, I'll take it. Not to brag or anything but I saw the difference with my writing against that of my second job teammates. They're more used to team-to-team email writing (and chat) than speaking with managers and corporate officers.

"We come in peace." I almost used that phrase in my third job, to support my supervisor in one business meeting we attended. He was trying to explain something about web servers, pages, and applications that he was taking too long that the managers and business managers were getting impatient. I gathered my courage to speak up and good thing the people in the meeting took it lightly and with humor.

My supervisor was a nerd. Like, really. To the point that he changed my definition of being a nerd. (Of course there's a lot of definitions but I had a limited definition at that time. I was in my mid-20's then.) He was stereotypical nerd--a fan of Star Trek and comic books, likes a weird mix of music, and dresses unusually in high-belted pants and thick glasses. He claims he was "cool" before but he suffered carbon monoxide poisoning and was comatose for three days; after which he lost some physical agility and mental ability. I believe the poisoning and comatose part since it really showed--the "cool" part I find hard to believe since his nerdy preferences are things that don't come overnight.

I digress. My supervisor was trying to explain how certain web pages cannot display in the specific manner our managers wanted. His explanations were becoming too confusing and he was adding technical terms. What started as a cordial meeting is starting to heat up--the managers were thinking that the technical team is just delaying.

I gathered my courage to speak up. Good thing my supervisor let me. I tried to explain the thing by defining things first, that this server is for this thing, that this server is for this thing, and that this web page loads data from this server, and used analogy as to why the specific thing cannot be loaded. I cannot remember the details, but the way the meeting concluded, with the manager humoring the supervisor with "you should have just said so like that," all ended well.

"We come in peace." Maybe because programmers and developers use code more, and technical people have technical language as part of their lives, that simple language is secondary. Combine that with the thought of "as long as we understand each other", simple language is not mandatory. But, if you think of it, being able to write in simple terms is one great skill to have. The dear reader would notice that apps and websites with simple language have more appeal, since users would be able to understand them better. Even things like laws should have simple versions to make sure that people understand them better. There's little room for legalese or technical jargon.

In my current job, I'm considered as a technical writer, since I really can't output anything without putting technical things in them. But I'm proud to say that I can write things in a manner that is clear and (most of the time) concise, to the point that I'm consulted by some teammates in their grammar or semantics. I'm still able to express myself clearly, mostly in writing. In speaking, still not so much.

I did have some difficulties, at some point. But it is mostly due to the technicalities of the job--the process, the formats, the protocols. In terms of writing, though, I'm proud to say that I'm not an alien. There's no need to say "we come in peace", since communication is simpler, and much better.

-T