• he/him

Dad; software engineer; fan of giant robots in many contexts, board games, RPGs. Queer rights are not negotiable. Halifax, NS


pervocracy
@pervocracy

the other annoying thing about "4 ÷ 2 x 2 = ???" questions, whether they're presented as tests of math or IQ

is that asking followup questions for clarification is a crucial life skill in basically every job and activity. we all have a story about the coworker who didn't. and the story is not about how happy everyone was to not be bothered.

we should not, in fact, be teaching the children that intelligence means correctly guessing the intent of an ambiguous request


npilon
@npilon

It's really depressing when you realize how many performance, success, and quantity metrics are just "do you interpret this ambiguous thing the same way I do without asking for clarification?" Especially around intelligence and ability.


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in reply to @pervocracy's post:

Maybe this is because I'm neurodivergent and see ambiguity where others do not, maybe it's because I've had bad bosses, but my experience has been that asking for clarification is extremely often taken as offensive, and gets a "how fucking dare you question me and my decisions/opinions/etc" type response. Somehow especially so when prefacing it by saying I just want to understand what's meant.