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How does one determine when to ask questions?

Jeffrey

A friend suggested that I find answers for the following questions in a forum. This was the first forum I found.

How does one know when to just accept what someone says to make them happy, and when to question what someone says?

How does one determine when to make assumptions about what someone means, and when to ask for clarification on their meaning?

I have previously just asked questions because I hate making assumptions, but I have been recently told that people do not like answering too many questions. "Too many," is too vague for me to be able to do anything about it.

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  • These questions are quite difficult to answer because so much depends on the scenario. I'll try though!

    Jeffrey said:
    How does one know when to just accept what someone says to make them happy, and when to question what someone says?

    It might be worth considering how important it is to you to question them. For example, if someone says they love their new green t-shirt and you think it looks blue, it doesn't really matter - it's not going to have a negative impact on either of you if they think it's green. However, if you're told to do something at work and you're not sure you understand what you're supposed to do, you should definitely ask them to clarify. If someone says something that's offensive or goes against your morals (e.g. they make a racist remark), then yes, you can absolutely question them on their beliefs and try to educate them.

    Jeffrey said:
    How does one determine when to make assumptions about what someone means, and when to ask for clarification on their meaning?

    I guess the answer to this question is similar. If it's important for you to be clear on what they mean, ask for clarity. I find it hard to know when to make assumptions too, but there are some scenarios where clarity is really important. For example, my doctor recently told me to take some medication three times a day. If I'd worked on assumptions, I would've assumed that I needed to take them 4 hours apart. However, I asked for clarity on when I should take them, and they said that I needed to take the tablets 20 minutes before a meal. If I hadn't cleared that up, I might have taken them on a full stomach, which would've been the wrong thing to do.

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  • These questions are quite difficult to answer because so much depends on the scenario. I'll try though!

    Jeffrey said:
    How does one know when to just accept what someone says to make them happy, and when to question what someone says?

    It might be worth considering how important it is to you to question them. For example, if someone says they love their new green t-shirt and you think it looks blue, it doesn't really matter - it's not going to have a negative impact on either of you if they think it's green. However, if you're told to do something at work and you're not sure you understand what you're supposed to do, you should definitely ask them to clarify. If someone says something that's offensive or goes against your morals (e.g. they make a racist remark), then yes, you can absolutely question them on their beliefs and try to educate them.

    Jeffrey said:
    How does one determine when to make assumptions about what someone means, and when to ask for clarification on their meaning?

    I guess the answer to this question is similar. If it's important for you to be clear on what they mean, ask for clarity. I find it hard to know when to make assumptions too, but there are some scenarios where clarity is really important. For example, my doctor recently told me to take some medication three times a day. If I'd worked on assumptions, I would've assumed that I needed to take them 4 hours apart. However, I asked for clarity on when I should take them, and they said that I needed to take the tablets 20 minutes before a meal. If I hadn't cleared that up, I might have taken them on a full stomach, which would've been the wrong thing to do.

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