3 ms·

This release note reminds me of my wife. She skips any context and starts a story in the middle, leaving me to do the detective work of figuring out what on ear

This release note reminds me of my wife. She skips any context and starts a story in the middle, leaving me to do the detective work of figuring out what on earth we're even talking about.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
Arrath 4y ago
I'm not sure what's preferable: your described mystery of a story, or the stereotypical "20 minutes of backstory and how we know their family" before getting to the meat of it.
- dahwolf 4y ago
  Is your wife behind all these recipe blogs?
  - chris_st 4y ago
    You, sir or modem as the case may be, just made my day.
    - dahwolf 4y ago
      Welcome. It's sir modem actually.
- yamtaddle 4y ago
  Yeah, that's the kind I get. A 30-second story stretched to several minutes. Every conversation related line-by-line even when most of it's not important and could have been summed up or omitted. It's... sure something. She has a much better memory than me, though, and sometimes I wonder if it's because she recounts damn near every event in her life to someone else at least once (often three or four times) in great detail shortly after it happens, effectively giving it a thorough review while it's still fresh, while I pretty much never do that. ... but, if it's not a story, I do also get the starting-to-talk-with-no-context thing where IDK WTF she's talking about. "What do you think about red?" Red... what? To paint something? If so, what? Is that the title of something? For a shirt color? As a color, in general? The entry in the Bleu/Blanc/Rouge trilogy? The Target Red card? Flowers? We weren't even talking about anything! She says she kinda starts conversations in her head and it's not always the first part that comes out when she finally starts talking. Doesn't even realize she's done it until it's pointed out.
  - Ancapistani 4y ago
    My wife is the same way, though I don't think it's anything specific to her or her sex - I suspect it's just inherent in the bond that people form when spending a great deal of time together. Most of the time, when she starts conversations in the middle, I'm able to instantly intuit the topic and jump right in. I don't think about it and don't even notice it. When I do notice it (because I'm lost) I just tell her that I don't have any context. No problem. I'll also say that I have no idea of if or how often I do the same thing.
- LeifCarrotson 4y ago
  Absolutely prefer more information. I can skim several hundred words per minute and scroll to the bottom if I already know the backstory, but if I don't, the punchline is completely useless and there's nowhere to go to find the context. The author does not know what background the reader knows or does not know, and furthermore, if your story has multiple readers their level of background knowledge is not going to be equivalent.
justin_oaks 4y ago
Many of my previous and current coworkers do exactly the same thing. Not only do they skip the context, but they also use vague terms like "it isn't working", "the server is stuck", and "the network died". I'll often be told incorrect terms like Docker "container" instead of "image", "container" instead of "server" (or machine, node, host, EC2 instance, etc), "VPN connection" instead of "Remote Desktop connection", etc. Lots of detective work and interrogation is necessary to come to some sort of understanding.
jstarfish 3y ago
Speaking of detectives and half-stories, my bully of a stepdaughter indirectly taught me the corollary to this: Only ever tell the end of any story, i.e. "I'm being sexually harassed by a lesbian girl at school!" Throw yourself a pity party and guests will never question you. Nobody will discover the reason for the "harassment" was because she solicited the "offender."

This release note reminds me of my wife. She skips any context and starts a story in the middle, leaving me to do the detective work of figuring out what on earth we're even talking about.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

Arrath 4y ago

I'm not sure what's preferable: your described mystery of a story, or the stereotypical "20 minutes of backstory and how we know their family" before getting to the meat of it.

dahwolf 4y ago
Is your wife behind all these recipe blogs?
- chris_st 4y ago
  You, sir or modem as the case may be, just made my day.
  - dahwolf 4y ago
    Welcome. It's sir modem actually.
yamtaddle 4y ago
Yeah, that's the kind I get. A 30-second story stretched to several minutes. Every conversation related line-by-line even when most of it's not important and could have been summed up or omitted. It's... sure something. She has a much better memory than me, though, and sometimes I wonder if it's because she recounts damn near every event in her life to someone else at least once (often three or four times) in great detail shortly after it happens, effectively giving it a thorough review while it's still fresh, while I pretty much never do that. ... but, if it's not a story, I do also get the starting-to-talk-with-no-context thing where IDK WTF she's talking about. "What do you think about red?" Red... what? To paint something? If so, what? Is that the title of something? For a shirt color? As a color, in general? The entry in the Bleu/Blanc/Rouge trilogy? The Target Red card? Flowers? We weren't even talking about anything! She says she kinda starts conversations in her head and it's not always the first part that comes out when she finally starts talking. Doesn't even realize she's done it until it's pointed out.
- Ancapistani 4y ago
  My wife is the same way, though I don't think it's anything specific to her or her sex - I suspect it's just inherent in the bond that people form when spending a great deal of time together. Most of the time, when she starts conversations in the middle, I'm able to instantly intuit the topic and jump right in. I don't think about it and don't even notice it. When I do notice it (because I'm lost) I just tell her that I don't have any context. No problem. I'll also say that I have no idea of if or how often I do the same thing.
LeifCarrotson 4y ago
Absolutely prefer more information. I can skim several hundred words per minute and scroll to the bottom if I already know the backstory, but if I don't, the punchline is completely useless and there's nowhere to go to find the context. The author does not know what background the reader knows or does not know, and furthermore, if your story has multiple readers their level of background knowledge is not going to be equivalent.

justin_oaks 4y ago

Many of my previous and current coworkers do exactly the same thing. Not only do they skip the context, but they also use vague terms like "it isn't working", "the server is stuck", and "the network died". I'll often be told incorrect terms like Docker "container" instead of "image", "container" instead of "server" (or machine, node, host, EC2 instance, etc), "VPN connection" instead of "Remote Desktop connection", etc. Lots of detective work and interrogation is necessary to come to some sort of understanding.

jstarfish 3y ago

Speaking of detectives and half-stories, my bully of a stepdaughter indirectly taught me the corollary to this: Only ever tell the end of any story, i.e. "I'm being sexually harassed by a lesbian girl at school!" Throw yourself a pity party and guests will never question you. Nobody will discover the reason for the "harassment" was because she solicited the "offender."