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I’m not tripping on details, this is a crucial aspect working with neurodiverse people. One of my common challenges is the opposite: I ask a question intended

I’m not tripping on details, this is a crucial aspect working with neurodiverse people. One of my common challenges is the opposite: I ask a question intended literally and people “read into” what I ask and make assumptions about what i’m “getting at”. Then I need to follow up with “No, no, really, I am curious about (same question again)”. sometimes I need to ask 3-4 times. Conversations with people who are “on the spectrum” can be a lot more productive

mlyle 7y ago
As originally phrased, though, I've gotten the blunt no to "could you please ...?" because the person felt they couldn't. So while I tripped up on using the exact text in the article, it aligns with my personal experience.
mistermann 7y ago
> One of my common challenges is the opposite: I ask a question intended literally and people “read into” what I ask and make assumptions about what i’m “getting at”. If you keep this idea in mind while reading ~political conversations on forums, you will see that this behavior is extremely common. In many cases, both sides of a disagreement seem to be fighting with a strawman version of their conversational counterpart. To me, this is a widespread mental illness in Western societies, and I think it's possible that it may be getting worse, and (based on my experiences) might even be spreading into more traditionally fact-based discussions (the workplace, etc).
- mlyle 7y ago
  At the same time, variants of this are useful. e.g. http://xyproblem.info/ http://xyproblem.info/ When I'm asked for advice or how to do something, very often the literal answer is "wrong." It's always useful to try and consider why someone would ask a question and try to keep that context in mind in answering, but one should not overreact and completely disregard the original question.

mlyle 7y ago

As originally phrased, though, I've gotten the blunt no to "could you please ...?" because the person felt they couldn't. So while I tripped up on using the exact text in the article, it aligns with my personal experience.

mistermann 7y ago

> One of my common challenges is the opposite: I ask a question intended literally and people “read into” what I ask and make assumptions about what i’m “getting at”. If you keep this idea in mind while reading ~political conversations on forums, you will see that this behavior is extremely common. In many cases, both sides of a disagreement seem to be fighting with a strawman version of their conversational counterpart. To me, this is a widespread mental illness in Western societies, and I think it's possible that it may be getting worse, and (based on my experiences) might even be spreading into more traditionally fact-based discussions (the workplace, etc).

mlyle 7y ago
At the same time, variants of this are useful. e.g. http://xyproblem.info/ http://xyproblem.info/ When I'm asked for advice or how to do something, very often the literal answer is "wrong." It's always useful to try and consider why someone would ask a question and try to keep that context in mind in answering, but one should not overreact and completely disregard the original question.