You can't tell people anything, Chip Morningstar, Habitat Chronicles, 2004

http://habitatchronicles.com/2004/04/you-cant-tell-people-anything/

This is sort of Morningstar’s version of Murphy’s Law.

We all spend a lot of our time talking to bosses or investors or marketing people or press or friends or other developers. I’m totally convinced that a new idea or a new plan or a new technique is never really understood when you just explain it. People will often think they understand, and they’ll say they understand, but then their actions show that it just ain’t so.

With luck, eventually there will be an “Aha!”. If you’re really good, the “Aha!” will followed by “Oh, so that’s what you meant”. But don’t be too surprised or upset if the “Aha!” is instead followed by “Why didn’t you tell me that?”.