Communication Basics: My Common Sense Foundation and My Path to It

The foundation for my communication basics is in common sense that is not very technical, but my journey has taken me through some of the technical materials and I just want to share some of that journey that might provoke discussion among the specialist and the experts.  The main thing is to follow the common sense argument.  But before it developed, I learned quite a bit from the following teachers (only 2 -3 I never met or talked directly to) at higher levels of learning.

In the 80s, there was first John S. Piper, Tom Steller, William A. Smalley, Lois Malcolm, Donald N. Larson, and James Hurd.  Later came B. Wayne Johnson, Claude Bowen, Dale Carnegie, Paul J. Meyer, and Peter F. Drucker.

In the 90s, it was Drucker (again), Daniel P. Fuller, Robert "Bobby" Clinton, Eugene A. Nida, Rick Warren, and Wooden.  Later came David Schierenbeck, Robert Stein, Gary A. Smith, Thomas A. Schreiner, David Clark, and James Brooks.

In the 2000s, it was David Sulack, Galen Call, Rick Thoman, Roger Lutz, Millard Erickson, and Nils Friberg.  Later it was Dwight Perry, Roger Buck, Tom Collins, Darrell Amacker , Steve Pedersen ,and Walter Kaiser.

Since 2010, it was Kaiser (again), Arnold Klukas, Allen P. Ross, Garwood Anderson, Stephen Peay, and Thomas L. Holtzen.  The later remains to be seen the future.  It will likely include Hopp, etc.

In 2010, I first began to use materials directly addressing the issue of emotions.  Before that time, I was mostly familiar with Dan Goleman's book, Emotional Intelligence.  In 2010, I began using the emotion wheel developed by Plutchik and even tried to develop my own emotional charts based on my logic tool that I learned over a period from the early 80s and began to use very frequently from 2004 forward.

Here is how I viewed the emotions in 2010:

[intentionally left out until after my book is published later in 2014]

Here is how I would chart them today:

[intentionally left out until after my book is published later in 2014]


It is in late 2013, that I realized the common sense level support for my ideas.  It was November 18th, 2013 to be more exact.  The idea is that the greatest words are in one sense the least when it comes to foundational support and that the least words are the greatest whose very high frequency we take for granted makes them the real basis especially for the logic of language, but also for the emotions.

 For the emotions a great example is that of anger and our use of the words "let" and the words "not ... let".  For any one of the emotions there are basic words like these that show the great importance of addressing not only the logic of the brain, but also its emotion.

So the next time someone says that this is all so simple, or why didn't I see it sooner, they need to consider sometimes you travel through the complex and high level to reach the simple and low level.  I only hope that from this point forward more can find the simple and low level road first.  I took the high road, but taking the low road first is the best way to learn.  The other route nearly killed me a few times!  Take care.

Sincerely,

Jon