Over-Communication?

Let me get one thing out there right off the bat: there is no such thing as overcommunication, but you can talk too much.  Like Lucy Ricardo or Barney Fife, you can definitely run your mouth too much.  Or like Mallory from Family Ties.  And every character in Friends.

And I know I said 'one thing' but allow me expand to two things: you can talk too much and you can say too much.  Those are different.  However, you cannot over-communicate, so I'd like to reconcile the differences between communicating, talking, and just saying stuff.

For the purpose of a simple, self-scrawled definition, 'communication' is a

Experiential Experiment

Everyone wants to be certified.  If you're certified, you're bonafide.  If you are bonafide, your value is amplified.

In order to get certified you could spend all kinds of time and effort studying, or you could find a boot camp and cram.  Well, in 2005 I was in the latter group.  I packed my bags and headed to Schaumburg, Illinois for a week-long Cisco boot camp in the hopes of being CCDA certified.

The classroom lessons packed tons of information into a tight period, and we all went back to our hotel rooms each night with homework to complete before the next day. Maybe you remember those ads where General Mills asked, "How do they cram all that graham?"  I was asking how we crammed all that test prep.

Friday came and we took the CCDA exam, which had to be in an official test facility with a live proctor.  And you can stop holding your breath, I'm pleased to say