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Touche, you're right. Note that the first post I replied to said it is more a display of courtesy to someone whom you are about to cause discomfort which my E

Touche, you're right. Note that the first post I replied to said it is more a display of courtesy to someone whom you are about to cause discomfort which my English as a second language skills parse as unconditionally causing discomfort (after asking). That's the twist. IF you are convinced that reclining your seat causes discomfort, would asking for permission be the right thing to do? (Obviously I might just plain suck at English once more and fail to understand that sentence correctly)

rfergie 11y ago
Just to be clear - if they say "no" then I don't recline. But I can see that this isn't clear from my original post so sorry for causing confusion
- darklajid 11y ago
  Hmm.. Let me explain my (probably broken) mental model. But I'm not sure it really is about the yes/no answer - it is more a display of courtesy to someone whom you are about to cause discomfort I parse that as - You think reclining causes discomfort (Not sure I agree, but let's take this as given for now) - But you ask the one behind you For me it followed that if the person behind you says 'Sure, go ahead' you'd knowingly cause them discomfort (albeit after asking them / with their consent)? For the sake of sanity: Can you pick that apart for me? Text is a crappy medium, this isn't my native language and nuances are hard. Where did I fail?
  - rfergie 11y ago
    From what you say there I think you understand me. Throughout this interaction I am assuming a few things: 1. Reclining causes discomfort to the person behind 2. But the amount of discomfort varies quite a bit from person to person (e.g. I can imagine that a small child is less discomforted than others) 3. I can't really tell for sure how much discomfort reclining will cause so I ask if it is OK to recline. Then it is up to the person behind to decide how comfortable they are with this. Are you suggesting that I shouldn't recline at all because it causes discomfort to those behind even if the amount of discomfort might be negligible?

rfergie 11y ago

Just to be clear - if they say "no" then I don't recline. But I can see that this isn't clear from my original post so sorry for causing confusion

darklajid 11y ago
Hmm.. Let me explain my (probably broken) mental model. But I'm not sure it really is about the yes/no answer - it is more a display of courtesy to someone whom you are about to cause discomfort I parse that as - You think reclining causes discomfort (Not sure I agree, but let's take this as given for now) - But you ask the one behind you For me it followed that if the person behind you says 'Sure, go ahead' you'd knowingly cause them discomfort (albeit after asking them / with their consent)? For the sake of sanity: Can you pick that apart for me? Text is a crappy medium, this isn't my native language and nuances are hard. Where did I fail?
- rfergie 11y ago
  From what you say there I think you understand me. Throughout this interaction I am assuming a few things: 1. Reclining causes discomfort to the person behind 2. But the amount of discomfort varies quite a bit from person to person (e.g. I can imagine that a small child is less discomforted than others) 3. I can't really tell for sure how much discomfort reclining will cause so I ask if it is OK to recline. Then it is up to the person behind to decide how comfortable they are with this. Are you suggesting that I shouldn't recline at all because it causes discomfort to those behind even if the amount of discomfort might be negligible?