I’m autistic. This problem shows up for me all over the place, to the point that I typically don’t recommend reading anymore except when strictly necessary. However, it is showing up now because I’m working with people on a project (and generally everyone I have worked with at school so far) who will not read, particularly documentation for tools and programs, data sheets, and application notes. How do I get people “up to speed” if they refuse to read the things I send them?
Some concepts are simply too complex or too lengthy for me to explain correctly in a real conversation. It’s really the fact that nobody seems to want to read in any field of endeavor suggests that it’s something wrong with me and how I perceive things.
Grad students are underpaid and overworked. Do they have any reason to care as much about the project as you do?
I thought the possibility of failing the class + the fact that they chose to be in my group voluntarily after warning them at every step of the process that this would be a challenge would be enough to motivate them.
Yeah only one of us has a job. We’re not making any money for this lol.
So, none of you have stipends and it is a group project for class. See my original answer. They’re not going to have the same priorities as you and, if you’re going to work with a group, you need to accept that.
Throwing mountains of documentation at them isn’t going to work. Talk to them and find out what it is they are finding difficult. Break it down into more manageable chunks. Rough-code it and work out the details when they have a big picture to work from. Or whatever it is that makes sense given what you’re doing.