This is miserable. Communication needs to be informative and actionable first of all. For example, the opener “I am not impressed by that projection.” Who cares

This is miserable. Communication needs to be informative and actionable first of all. For example, the opener “I am not impressed by that projection.” Who cares? There is 1 bit of info on that statement (impressed OR not impressed). It achieves nothing. Second to being informative and actionable, communication should be useful (to you, to them). If being blunt or overly straightforward renders it useless, for any reason (even just sensitivity of the listener), then you need to take that into account and consider how it affects the outcome you want. It reminds me of this Yudkowsky quote from [0]: > “what you say is another issue, especially when speaking to nonrationalists, and then it is well to bear in mind that words don't have fixed meanings; the meaning of the sounds that issue from your lips is whatever occurs in the mind of the listener. If they're going to misinterpret something then you shouldn't say it to them no matter what the words mean inside your own head” This article from Beck is little more than pretense to feel entitled to treat people rudely and act as if that is pragmatic. Very disappointing. [0]: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Pm83rA8MTYYeR4Ci4/i-don-t-know https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Pm83rA8MTYYeR4Ci4/i-don-t-kn...