Communication: do it right

or don't ask for help

Grown adults who know better have fallen into the lazy habits of Generation Z.

People who lived in the sane world that existed a few years ago are acting as though they, too, have forgotten how human communication works.

But they haven’t. They’ve gotten lazy. That happens to all of us, and I am included. But not wholly included.

I make the effort to be clear and understandable. The same effort that was normal and expected of every grown adult before texting became ubiquitous.

I expect and insist on the same from anyone who wants to communicate with me. It’s irksome how many people don’t reciprocate that baseline level of respect. They force a person (from whom they want help or conversation) to actively beg and wheedle and pull information from the requestor that the requestor should already have made clear.

This is unacceptable. I will answer no communications like these:

1. “The site/link doesn’t work!”

-Be specific, type out the site, and tell me what “it doesn’t work” means. Don’t do that and I ignore your request.

2. “What do you think of this?” followed by a screenshot of a text conversation. No names. No labels. No context. Often no way to visually discern which of the messages in the screenshot is from party A, or from party B.

-If I have to prompt a person to do what they should have done without asking, I’m likely to ignore what they want. I will not do their work for them. Just like I wouldn’t ask them to do my work for me.


This goes for almost any modern communication. The fact of cell phone and digital technology does not change the mentation requirements that evolved human brains operate on.

Humans did not become ChatGPT just because cell phones were invented. Our minds didn’t evolve new epistemic and deductive software just because everyone lives on their iphones.

Everyone reading this knows this is true. Everyone reading this feels the same way I feel when they’re dunned with some vague request that is sent to them as if they were an algorithm, not a person.

This is so basic I shouldn’t have to write this. It’s not extreme, or excessive, or unreasonable.

The general refusal to consider the needs of the other person in communication is what’s lazy, rude, and irritating.