If I had a superpower, it would be to force someone when I ask a question to just give me the answer instead of going on this 10 minute explanation that, alternatively, you could take 10 seconds to just answer the damn question.
as someone who tends to answer questions with extremely long winding answers, this is definitely something that i need to be careful of!!
i've found that the trick is:
- Give the answer right away
- If it seems important, ask if the person wants context
- Give context as to why that is the answer
- Repeat the answer afterwards
That way the last thing you tell them is the most important thing, and hopefully the other stuff was also useful in reinforcing the truthfulness of that answer.