Competency and ability to explain are not directly correlated with each other things. Person with deep technical competency need to overcome certain barriers on the way of reaching others’ consciousness, such as background, rejection and habits. I’ll speak about roots of those barriers and ways to overcome them

1. How would you explain your
gut feeling to others
or Refactoring of Competency
by Alexander Goida

2. Basics
Competency
Ability to Explain
cargo cult in software development

3. Basics
Competency
Ability to Explain
Possession of sufficient
knowledge or skill
— Merriam-Webster dictionary

4. Basics
Competency
Ability to Explain
To make something plain
or understandable
— Merriam-Webster dictionary

5. Basics
Competency Ability to Explain≠

6. Gregor
Mendel
Basics
Mozhaysky
Alexander
Giordano
Bruno

7. Basics
Gregor
Mendel
Mozhaysky
Alexander
Giordano
Bruno

8. It is difficult to explain
sometimes.
Why?

9. “Technical Debt”
In Communication

10. “Technical Debt”
In Communication
An extra development work
that arises when code that is
easy to implement in the
short run is used instead of
applying the best overall
solution.
— Techopedia

11. Debts
Decomposition
In Communication
Barriers
Awareness
Language

12. Barriers Different background
Rejection of other groups
Habits
Emotions, Jargon & Culture.

13. Barriers Any proposal which appears to
meet the common interests, in the
eyes of the group receiving the
proposal, will seem
disadvantageous and serving the
interests of the opposing party.
— Lee Ross, Richard Nisbett,
“The person and the situation”
Rejection of other groups.

14. Barriers The construction of railways will
damage public health, as driving
at speeds of over 40 km/h will
inevitably lead to concussion and
insanity, as well as dizziness and
nausea in people near this road.
— 1837
Bavarian Royal Medical Council
Habits.

15. Awareness Cognitive framework
Cargo cult
I want to tell about something.
Person doesn’t understand what I’m
talking about.

16. Awareness Dunning-Kruger effect
Cognitive framework

17. Awareness
Cognitive framework

18. Awareness
Cargo cult
in the South Seas there is a cargo cult of people

19. Language Terminology & Audience
Shared Ideas & Vision
I want to tell about something.
Person doesn’t understand what I’m
talking about.

21. Language Language determines thought and
that linguistic categories limit and
determine cognitive categories.
— Sapir–Whorf hypothesis
Linguistic relativity

22. Sort the debt out.
How?

23. Refactoring Conferences
Meetups
MOOCs
Writing articles
Being a speaker
Purpose is to improve the non-
functional properties of the code.

24. What else?

25. I believe that...
People learn from People
...sometimes they don’t.