Direct Communication is Usually More Effective
signulll · x · 2026-07-12
The author argues that people are generally happier when they directly and politely ask for what they want. While articulate individuals might weave elegant, indirect questions into a conversation to subtly extract information, this "linguistic magic" requires high skill and can easily backfire. Therefore, straightforwardness remains the safest and most effective strategy for most people.
More from AGI Musings
- ControlAI CEO says an international ban on superintelligence is needed to avert extinction risk — zetalyrae · 2026-07-22
- Gary Marcus says LLMs still cannot really do math on their own — GaryMarcus · 2026-07-22
- Gary Marcus says LLM math skills are like knowing only a car’s engine size — GaryMarcus · 2026-07-22
- AI may make digital work infinitely leveraged while offline life gets more human — illscience · 2026-07-22
- Better AI math could save researchers time by killing false conjectures earlier — prateekj · 2026-07-22
- AI’s economic forecasts are split by nearly a quadrillion dollars by 2035 — bittingthembits · 2026-07-22