You can know a lot about a person from the TV channels and TV shows they watch. They are friends who have access to over 100 channels, yet never venture from a small, select number of channels. They are people who channel-surf religiously, their viewing experience of the evening shaped by whatever catches their eye. You would expect these two types of people to be different in their opinions and general outlook of life. But what matters is not how we see things but what we actually see. We make take different paths but if what we experience is the same, we could be closer to each other than we think.
What we experience shapes our perspective. For many people, what is perceived is reality. An example I like to use often is that of someone who has just left the jungle, say Tarzan, and a car. He is told by modern society that he will need car. He has never seen one, so he does not know what it is. He is given a description of what it is. If you ask him to draw a car based from the descriptions he gets, what he draws is very different from what a car normally is. It'll be more likely an elephant. This is because in his reality, he has never need (nor probably wanted) a car. But he does need transportation. Whatever he rides to move around is probably the closest idea he has to a car.
We are constantly told what we need, most of it through advertisements. We normally don't feel a compulsion to buy all of it but it depends on how you process the advertisements. If you keep seeing the same advertisement or the ads that sell the same thing, most likely when you are are the store, you will notice that product first. This is because the advertisement has made an association between the product and the image or sound or experience of the ad. Similarly, the association we make between a car and a vehicle is the same as Tarzan making between the elephant and something to get him from place to place. All the various associations we have is what forms our perception.
Now the description given to Tarzan was something along the lines of "A car is what you use to get from place to place." That describes in our reality of what a car does and affects us most. Tarzan has a different idea of what get him from place to place, therefore the choice of the elephant. But if the description was "It has four wheels and you can enter it.. and you use it to get from place to place." the extra information would have not led Tarzan to think of the elephant. The more descriptive it gets, the more information provided, the more associations are tested to see whether they match.
Often with a problem, we reach a point where associations break or there are none. That is where the other person comes in. When you describe your problem to another person, you are adding their perceptions. You are testing their associations to see whether they can provide the information you need to solve the problem. Basically, you are putting your problem in their reality. They may have faced the same problem or something similar. The very least is that another perspective may provide additional information to extend your associations. That may lead to options to solve your problem.
There are many ways to transmit information or describe your problem. But if possible, include a picture. With it, Tarzan would have gotten it right the first time.
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