Ask Culture vs. Guess Culture

by phil on Friday Jun 27, 2008 1:56 PM

There's so many great comments buried within forums that someone could make a living just dredging up the best of these and re-formatting them for Diggable/Publishable consumption.

Here's a great example, Ask Culture vs. Guess Culture:

In some families, you grow up with the expectation that it's OK to ask for anything at all, but you gotta realize you might get no for an answer. This is Ask Culture.

In Guess Culture, you avoid putting a request into words unless you're pretty sure the answer will be yes. Guess Culture depends on a tight net of shared expectations. A key skill is putting out delicate feelers. If you do this with enough subtlety, you won't even have to make the request directly; you'll get an offer. Even then, the offer may be genuine or pro forma; it takes yet more skill and delicacy to discern whether you should accept.

All kinds of problems spring up around the edges. ... Read More