Mercurial > thoughts

     1 #+Title: Heuristics for productive social interactions

     2 

     3 

     4 If someone asks you "have you ever talked to X", they are thinking

     5 that that person might be helpful to you. Your answer shoud almost

     6 always be "what should I talk to X about?". (desiree)

     7 

     8 

     9 Don't ask people yes/no questions where the "no" answer might be

    10 dissappointing. So for example, asking "did you son accomplish that

    11 before graduating high school?" implies that the no answer means that

    12 the son was "slacking". Ask "how old was your son when he did that?" or

    13 "did your son accomplish that after graduating?".

    14 

    15 In general, avoid binary questions if possible. For example, instead

    16 of asking "Are you married?", ask "What is your home life like?" This

    17 is an important trick that anthropologists use to bridge large social

    18 gaps. The most general version is "what is your story?"

    19 

    20
author	Robert McIntyre <rlm@mit.edu>
date	Tue, 12 Jul 2016 21:16:25 -0700
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