3 ms·
There are some contradictions here: > Repeat what other people have told you. Ask simple questions, ideally with yes/no or very definite answers. and > Smart
by flashman 11y ago
There are some contradictions here:
> Repeat what other people have told you. Ask simple questions, ideally with yes/no or very definite answers.
and
> Smart people are never afraid to say 'I don't know' or 'I don't understand, please explain' or 'I'm confused about ______.'
My general advice is that people like talking, and 'being able to hold a conversation' often just means 'make the other person feel good by keeping them talking.' If I've been talking for more than a minute I'll try to dump the focus on someone else.
- anigbrowl 11y agoYou're right, that bit wasn't very clear. I didn't mean that you should just repeat random interesting things that you have heard because they sounded good! By 'repeat what other people have told you,' I meant to repeat briefly what you have just heard from the person you are conversing with, especially if you're disagreeing over something. this to make sure you've understood what they were telling you, and to show them that you were paying attention. One of the most frustrating things is to explain something and realize the other person hasn't really been listening, so I'll go to great lengths to make sure the other person knows they've been heard and got all their points across before I start trying to make any of my own. Obviously it depends on context. If you're both talking about some objective factual matter you can throw facts back and forth and if you can't agree you can go to the book/google/whatever. But where subjective matters are concerned people can have honestly different interpretations of the same circumstances.