Four misunderstandings in communication

  1. We translate our experience into language and mistake the language for the experience when it is an incomplete reflection
  2. We mistakenly believe others share our assumption and leave out vital parts of our message
  3. We misunderstand others because we fill gaps in their words from our model of the world, rather than finding out their model of the world – we think that because we share the same language, we share the same experience
  4. We tend to install our meaning or model of the world upon others e.g. “that must have been …. for you”