My job is selling books. On the one hand, I should sell as many and/or as expensive as possible books; on the other, since customers keep coming back, I should (if they explicitly ask my opinion, or if I see them hesitate) offer them deals that would be okay to them (I don’t aim higher—there are time constraints, after all). Taken together, this means I have to make assumptions about what they want and how much they want it (it’s actually interesting—listening to imprecise words, reading faces, trying to remember if we have something without looking it up, etc.).
Recently, a lady asked what I would consider a good present for a 11 y.o. child.
‘How about Tom Sawyer?’
‘Oh no, I mean, for a girl.’
Now, I had originally offered ‘Tom Sawyer’ exactly because I did not know the child’s gender, but her answer made it look like I had assumed that she was talking about a boy. I could have corrected her, but instead I pointed out ‘Ann from Green Gables’ and we parted (more-or-less) satisfied. (Obviously I’m still smarting.)
The point is, we could have argued about both our assumptions and our conclusions, but it was not worth it, and it did not matter much. Who of us was right?
My job is selling books. On the one hand, I should sell as many and/or as expensive as possible books; on the other, since customers keep coming back, I should (if they explicitly ask my opinion, or if I see them hesitate) offer them deals that would be okay to them (I don’t aim higher—there are time constraints, after all). Taken together, this means I have to make assumptions about what they want and how much they want it (it’s actually interesting—listening to imprecise words, reading faces, trying to remember if we have something without looking it up, etc.). Recently, a lady asked what I would consider a good present for a 11 y.o. child. ‘How about Tom Sawyer?’ ‘Oh no, I mean, for a girl.’ Now, I had originally offered ‘Tom Sawyer’ exactly because I did not know the child’s gender, but her answer made it look like I had assumed that she was talking about a boy. I could have corrected her, but instead I pointed out ‘Ann from Green Gables’ and we parted (more-or-less) satisfied. (Obviously I’m still smarting.)
The point is, we could have argued about both our assumptions and our conclusions, but it was not worth it, and it did not matter much. Who of us was right?