This week has been interesting purely from social observation. There have been many conversations with people across both personal and work life, and the randomness of incidental chats with retail and event staff. Conversations have been: written across email, social media, notes, support queries; and verbal in person, by phone and voice message. And that doesn’t even begin to touch on the additional visual and audio dialogue of marketing and journalist material.

Given the pure variety and volume of interaction we experience on a daily level, the high hit-rate of miscommunication is somewhat staggering. We go through our lives never fully understanding one another. And sometimes no amount of words can come close to bridging that gap. Many misunderstandings are inconsequential. Not enough information: “Where were we meeting?” Others can span the entire length of a conversation, with each party making vasty different references the entire way through without ever fully converging into a seamless, cohesive exchange (and it can be one of the most tortuously awkward experiences).

A question raised in the recent Geek Girl Dinner meet-up: how long will existing marketing models exist within a community which has increasing control over what information it accesses and when? And how much value does demographic data have in shaping a campaign to target specific social groups, and the individual within them? We [@GGDMelb] are a generation of 20-somethings with an intricate understanding of advertising manipulation, with effective filtering tools for what we view as white noise. And despite certain things in common, we all have vastly different tastes. The question is; how does anyone communicate with us at all, unless we specifically invite them in? Suddenly opposing views are no longer relevant because they are no longer acknowledged. It becomes a dangerous situation where communities can absorb niche to such a fine degree that the greater world disappears.

So, if people can’t understand each other, how does an organisation, with potentially divergent internal views, communication effectively with its audience comprised of people with conflicting tastes, opinions and pasts? From a business environment, the ultimate goal is the same as in personal life; honesty. Communicate what you want to say, not what people want to hear. You can never make everyone happy, and by trying to anticipate what may be the ultimate winning card to success you lose your most valuable asset, and that’s your own uniqueness. Fuck the people who aren’t going to understand you, because they never will.