Im LOSING YOU
Noise in the Signal
By Matt Mikalatos
When you ’ re talking on a cell phone and you start to lose bars , noise is introduced to the signal . Your friend on the other end is still talking , but you ’ re only catching bits and pieces . Although their message hasn ’ t changed , and they ’ re still doing the work of communication , you ’ re not able to understand because the noise drowns out the signal .
Anyone who has been on a conference call has experienced the comedy of errors that occurs with noise in the signal . Someone hasn ’ t muted their call ; they ’ re sitting by their gate at the airport , and we keep hearing announcements not to leave our bags unattended . Someone else ’ s call keeps dropping . Another is driving in their convertible , and every time they unmute , all we hear is the wind and a distant murmuring . Meanwhile ,
44 • Solutions your doorbell rings and you ’ re getting urgent text messages .
We ’ re all desperately trying to understand each other , but no one can hear anyone else , because there ’ s too much noise .
It ’ s easy to introduce noise into the signal when we ’ re talking to someone else . And when we ’ re communicating something as important as the good news , we need to be aware of what we ’ re doing that might pre-vent someone from hearing it .
For instance , I knew a man who never tipped his servers at restaurants . He would , instead , leave religious tracts along with the exact change for his meal . “ I gave them the good news of eternal life ,” he would say . “ What could be a better tip than that ?”