Who said it's funner to interpret people so you can agree with them?
October 15, 2008 3:10 AM   Subscribe

QuotationFilter: Who said it's more fun to construe people so that you can agree with them, than to argue with them? (I believe this was couched as a private mental game useful for dealing with boors.)
posted by rwhe to Human Relations (7 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Robert McNamara? "Answer the question you wish they'd asked."
posted by acro at 5:54 AM on October 15, 2008 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Thanks, but that's not it. It is Sarah Palin's primary debating strategy, however...

Can anyone else help? AskMeFi, don't fail me now!
posted by rwhe at 11:16 AM on October 15, 2008




Response by poster: tangerine, that wasn't the quotation, but it's pretty close in concept and spirit to the one i was thinking of. The quotation I have in mind was a bit more playful, and I think it implied you ought to construe the speaker's remarks as true even if you can't obtain feedback from the speaker.

Thanks!
posted by rwhe at 3:10 PM on October 15, 2008


Response by poster: tangerine: On second thought, bingo! I googled Miller's Law and found the more concise and witty version I remembered:

"In order to understand what another person is saying, you must assume that it is true, and try to imagine what it could be true of."

You made my day. Thank you very much!
posted by rwhe at 3:15 PM on October 15, 2008


Response by poster: Um, if I had read your answer more carefully, I would have seen you used the same quotation I did. I got lost in that stuff about toasters.

Sorry, and thanks again!
posted by rwhe at 3:18 PM on October 15, 2008


Of course, some people think it's more fun to do much the opposite.
posted by eritain at 4:46 PM on October 15, 2008


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