We can learn a lot about a person in the very moment that language fails them. In the very moment that they have to be more creative than they would have imagined in order to communicate. It’s the very moment that they have to dig deeper than the surface to find words, and at the same time, it’s a moment when they want to communicate very badly. They’re digging deep and projecting out at the same time... The idea is that the psychology of people is going to live right inside those moments when their grammar falls apart and, like being in a shipwreck, they are on their own to make it all work out.

Quite a thought-provoking and pertinent read. I noticed a that few people around here have a goal of learning to listen more. Our community is also no stranger to long-form debates between users. Taking the effort to truly accept and assimilate someone's words without a preconceived bias is a difficult but worthy goal.

Trying to listen is a funny thing. I find that sometimes when I try to listen to someone in physical word I find myself thinking about trying to listen to them. I guess this stems from forcing yourself to listen, paradoxically resisting your own thoughts or the words of others in an effort to focus. But this sometimes results in a one becoming too conscious of the spoken words themselves and not their cumulative meaning.

What does it mean to you to truly listen to someone? Does this significantly differ between physical and virtual communication?