Comments on: Confusion is Information http://cwd.dhemery.com/2004/05/confusion/ Dale Emery on Leadership Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:33:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 By: gamma http://cwd.dhemery.com/2004/05/confusion/#comment-130 gamma Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://cwd.dhemery.com/2004/05/04/confusion/#comment-130 I often have 'no reference' conversations with someone I know. He's say something like " I'll do it" in a context where it's ambiguous what he's referring to. That is, he'll say it after 2 or 3 other topics have gone past, so he could be referring to 3 or 4 different things. So, I spend a lot of time disambiguating what he means, which is fairly frustrating for both of us. And, because he knows exactly what he's referring to, he thinks I'm not paying attention, or am scatterbrained for not knowing what he's referring to. While I think he's been conversationally lazy and unclear. What would be a better way of handling it than asking him what he means? (Which doesn't help, because he doesn't know what I don't understand.) I often have ‘no reference’ conversations with someone I know. He’s say something like ” I’ll do it” in a context where it’s ambiguous what he’s referring to. That is, he’ll say it after 2 or 3 other topics have gone past, so he could be referring to 3 or 4 different things.

So, I spend a lot of time disambiguating what he means, which is fairly frustrating for both of us. And, because he knows exactly what he’s referring to, he thinks I’m not paying attention, or am scatterbrained for not knowing what he’s referring to. While I think he’s been conversationally lazy and unclear.

What would be a better way of handling it than asking him what he means? (Which doesn’t help, because he doesn’t know what I don’t understand.)

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