Honest communication solves problems 💬
Tom Scott is a popular YouTuber, producing educational content about History, Science, technology and linguistics.
In one particular episode, he speaks about why Dasani bottled water is not sold in Britain anymore. While walking down the road by the side of the bottling plant in Kent, he explains about the history of the brand’s introduction in UK and the events that followed.
Suddenly, about 3 mins into the video, my attention is drawn to a small text box to the bottom right of the frame.
There’s a 3 second countdown which reads as below:
Car horn in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... 0
And then there is a loud HONK!
A large grey van goes by swiftly down the road blaring its horn, no doubt causing a disturbance in an otherwise clean audio track of Tom narrating the tale to us.
At this point I am quite surprised to note that instead of the expected feeling of mild irritation, what I actually experienced was delight. Knowing what is in store, at the right moment, I anticipated the unpleasant sound, and was prepared to welcome it as a departure from everything leading up to this point.
The problem is that this interruption can’t be just edited out of the final video as Tom ends up speaking straight through the unexpected noise. Yet he remains unperturbed while narrating to us, almost as though he has the knowledge that with proactive communication he will be able to solve the problem.
He seems to know that letting the audience know in time about the interruption, he would be able to nullify the effect of the disturbance and keep us hooked to the story.
He was right! Honest communication is truly refreshing and can solve difficult problems!