Sue and JakeAfter puzzling over the name of this blog and doing a search that came up with things like the name of a football team, a colleague confessed he didn’t understand where “Red Jacket Diaries” came from.

Here’s the short answer: I’m more introverted than extrovert, so if prodded into the limelight, I like to wear a red “power jacket.” This goes back to the days when I used to blush when I had to speak in front of people, and wearing red provided some camouflage.

The confusion is a lesson in making assumptions in communications:

  • Assuming you came into this blog from my home page, you would have seen the photo of me in a red jacket. Wrong assumption, because a direct link to the blog bypasses the photo.
  • Assuming you have known me for a while, you would also know that I love the colour red and wear red as much as I possibly can, especially if I have to present, or when networking.  Again, wrong assumption, especially in a medium like a blog, where there could be a casual reader who doesn’t know me at all, or someone who has not seen me in a situation needing the red jacket. In fact, come to think of it, I’ve been wearing a lot of other colours lately.

So Oleg, thanks for the reminder to make no assumptions!