Engineer Brain
Some years ago I convinced a bunch of my friends and family to use Signal for encrypted messaging. This has been great - it can be sent over wifi rather than cell towers, it supported modern messaging features like replies, reactions, rich previews, and more, and if you’re texting someone who is not using Signal, it behaves as a normal SMS/MMS app. Fantastic.
Fast forward - the non-profit entity developing and maintaining Signal announced that they were removing SMS support. I have mixed feelings about this. I understand and support the philosophy, but now I have to explain to non-tech savvy people why they have to use two apps for messaging. This alone could be a nightmare worth ranting about, but it is not what I am here to write about.
Someone once used the term “engineer brain” to describe what I focus on and respond to in conversation. While I enjoy exploring deeper topics and heavy discussion, this can slow down an interaction. Of course, adapting to others’ responses and body language is all part of successful communication - I just naturally click with those who are happy to dive in on a topic for a while.
As a tech enthusiast (or perhaps more accurately just “engineer-brained”), I generally enjoy understanding how things work. I love knowing that power lines use high voltages because they experience less power loss over long distances. It is fascinating that Bluetooth 5.0+ manages to achieve further range and higher bandwidth than previous versions while using less power. When Signal drops SMS support and I am asked such questions as, “is normal texting safe?”, my engineer brain wants to explain every little detail about how texting works so they can decide for themselves.
Unfortunately for me, all they really want to hear is “yes” or no”, and this is perfectly ok.
I created a similar issue when teaching a friend to how to code for the first time. I agonized over the order with which I would present new concepts, how I might hint at underlying mechanisms, how to phrase and explain things, and what visual aids I could bring to the table. One might think this much thought and devotion would result in a fantastic lesson. Instead, I ended up learning a valuable lesson - that teaching, especially 1:1, is actually a conversation. I had so much to say and the perfect plan to cover it all, forgetting entirely that this was their first exposure to nearly all of this. One can only soak in so much new information at a time and internalize it, let alone remain interested.
Since being asked if texting is safe, I have spent an hour reading texting protocol specifications and will internalize them forever. No one really cares as long as it works.