Computers linked to the internet can share an incredible about of information in an unbelievable speed. An article can be downloaded instantly, an entire book in a few seconds.

Our brains, however, have a little more difficulty sharing information. If I want a person to know what I’m thinking, I have to either speak to them or text them. However, at most I can speak only around 150 words a minute and on my phone I can probably type about 40-50 words a minute at most (plus that person then needs to read the text).

This means we have to use shortcuts. In terms of being on the receiving end of the information, you have to pick up on other bits of information from a person (such as facial expression) or make assumptions about what a person is trying to say.

On the side of the person sharing the information, you have to summarize your thinking as succinctly as possible while still sharing the important parts. Even then you might only get a fraction of what you want across.

As a result of this limitation on the rate of information transfer, it is essential that we learn to communicate effectively. This includes both how we share our information as well as what we are sharing. It is impossible for another person to truly understand what is going on on your head.

One day in the future this might change. Projects like Elon Musk’s Neuralink are aiming to make the rate of information transfer between human brains much more rapid.

Until then, we’re just gonna have to learn to speak our mind.

Image is from the RMB boardroom where I invigilated an exam earlier this year. This is another example of how slow our information transfer is. It takes 4 hours for a student to try and relay how much they know about our subject, and an hour for a marker to verify this.