Last night, I saw an episode from StarTrek-TNG which had Captain Picard and an alien Captain facing off against a beast on a planet. The aliens spoke in metaphors. This meant that you had to have a common frame of reference in order to understand the meaning or imagery of what they were trying to communicate. The aliens wanted a common experience so that communication could flourish.
In any line of work, there are unique terms and vocabulary. When we interface with people from another department or line of business, we sometimes forget that they may not understand all of our terms just as we may not understand all of theirs. If a term seems unfamiliar to you, don't be afraid to get clarification. Liikewise, ask if there is anything that you can clarify for them. This fosters better communication so that everyone will have a better experience and be more productive.
"His Eyes Uncovered!" means "he understands" or "he sees the point". "With Sails unfurled" means "to go on".
I was thinking of some metaphors that may drive imagery in our industry which is common to us but not to others outside our industry. What image comes up when you hear "Steve Ballmer on stage speaking about Developers"? What about "That solution is 404"?
Perhaps we can get some other metaphors more SQL related:
- His Table Partitioned -> He has broken it up into manageable chunks
- Snapshot on a mirror -> Achieving safety and leveraging resources
- Her data backed up -> She feels safe and is happy
- With Many IOs -> slow