Fred Erikson

Erikson is the dude who says conversation is like climbing a tree that's climbing you back. It's something you have to make constant changes to as the other person makes moves you cannot anticipate and you respond, like dancing. I'm told. (: He was a musicologist and transcribes conversation in a kind of musical notation, finding that people very literally get out of rhythm with others sometimes at points where you find misunderstandings occurring. And they move their forks at the dinner table according to the conversational rhythm that their words are following too. Erikson went into educational anthropology very deliberately, feeling that it would be the best avenue to actually making a difference in the world in the lives of children. The term 'turn shark' comes from Erikson and work he has done on how some children learn the unwritten rules of turn taking and get more than their fair share of turns while those who don't quite get it, don't. He teaches at UCLA.