Two strategies for getting what you want: asking and guessing | by The Daily Edition | May, 2024 | The Medium Blog

👋 Welcome back to the Daily Edition Issue #75: A philosophy of LLMs, the moments leading up to famous photos, and how to Slack By Harris Sockel Every once in a while, you come across a perspective that brings aspects of yourself into focus. For me, that’s Jean Hsu ’s “Ask vs guess culture,” which starts with a small — but meaningful — distinction: “asking” versus “guessing” as strategies to get what you want. The idea dates back to (at least) 2007, when MetaFilter user “tangerine” responded to a man who wasn’t sure how to turn down his wife’s friend who asked to stay in their small New York City apartment. (As a NYC resident, I’ve been there!) The entire thread is worth reading; it feels like a precursor to Reddit’s “Am I The Asshole?” community — which, at over 17 million members, has been studied by philosophers as a window into human morality. Tangerine dives straight into the heart of the conflict: In some families, you grow up with the expectation that it’s OK to ask for anythi

👋 Welcome back to the Daily Edition Issue #75: A philosophy of LLMs, the moments leading up to famous photos, and how to Slack By Harris Sockel Every once in a while, you come across a perspective that brings aspects of yourself into focus. For me, that’s Jean Hsu ’s “Ask vs guess culture,” which starts with a small — but meaningful — distinction: “asking” versus “guessing” as strategies to get what you want. The idea dates back to (at least) 2007, when MetaFilter user “tangerine” responded to a man who wasn’t sure how to turn down his wife’s friend who asked to stay in their small New York C