Decibel

One of the best-kept secrets about communication is that we always turn a deaf ear to the loudest, outrageous, unceasing, honking, banging, screaming voice. Few things are easier than making a big noise, and few things are harder than keeping our volume low when we're making requests.

Uh-oh, you thought I'm referring to our Chief Executive's deaf ear to the protest about express rail fight. That's undeniably true – up to a point. But it's also true that similar stories can be found anywhere. I woke up at four this morning to feed my six-week old daughter, and then heard the low battery ring tone of my mobile phone. Well, the signal is simply as soft as a cat meowing. They needed help. That's what came to my mind when I heard the meow. I fed the mobile phone as well as my daughter, no questions asked. In two hours, my alarm clock shouted at the top of his lungs. And no prizes for guessing how efficient I was to give a good hit at the snooze button and go back to sleep.

How much that has to do with the noisy alarm clock and how much with my falling into bed weary to my bones after feeding in the wee hours, I cannot say. But surely there is good reason to feel and react differently to the varying loudness of requests. Given my beeper's noisy way of indicating the low battery status, for example, it should come as no surprise that I seldom replace my beeper's battery right after hearing that uproar.