How Thinking About Information Density May Help Your Relationships

How we think about information density also affects and can help us be more effective and deliberate about how we think about our “bandwidth” in relationships Because what I’m talking about are “in-jokes”. Not just in-jokes, obviously, but they’re a great example of what I mean about language as a “lossy compression algorithm”. A quick aside: This is a model, or a lens. It is not meant to be a scientific explanation, nor is it a simple “do this and it’ll fix things.” This is a perspective, a different way to look at what’s happening that might help shed light on thorny situations or help anticipate problems before they occur. Use it to the extent that it’s helpful in understanding yourself and your relationships. “You just had to be there.” There is no level of unpacking an in-joke with language that will fully convey the meaning intended by those who actually were there. Among those people who were there, simply saying a single word in a particular way can convey volumes of…