I find that people not only have different views of The World, but also different internal definitions and understandings of basic terminology. This guy has the understanding that some assumption is implied in the implementation of an algorithm. That guy has never assumed that was the case. Both have tremendous amounts of experience in writing software systems (for example.) I've seen this exact scenario cause dozens of minutes of superfluous conversation because neither of them bothered to hear a detail that would allow them to realize there was not a full understanding between them. To address this case, my personal habit has become to listen carefully, consider the very words being spoken, identify those little things that aren't clear, have bred assumptions, or just plain don't make sense, and then interrupt ... even if by the time my brain has done all this the speaker has moved on.
It's leagues better than working under the wrong assumptions for days, weeks, months...
It's leagues better than working under the wrong assumptions for days, weeks, months...