Now that I’ve seen the issue framed in those terms, I can think of several cases where someone spent so long on niceness-padding that I got annoyed, lost interest, or interrupted to ask them to get to the point. I would like to add that the niceness/efficiency tradeoff is continuous, not discrete, bounded on the maximally-efficient end and unbounded on the maximally-nice end, and that there must be some amount of niceness-padding so excessive that will annoy even those who prefer prefer more of it in general.
Oh, yes, I’ll certainly agree with that. Even the examples in the original post were a little too fluffy for my taste, and I’m the one who’s a stickler for courtesy. There’s certainly a balance to be struck—enough, but no more—which I haven’t emphasized enough for how important it is. Thanks for the reminder.
I wonder how much striking that balance is part of the skill of being useful and courteous at the same time.
Now that I’ve seen the issue framed in those terms, I can think of several cases where someone spent so long on niceness-padding that I got annoyed, lost interest, or interrupted to ask them to get to the point. I would like to add that the niceness/efficiency tradeoff is continuous, not discrete, bounded on the maximally-efficient end and unbounded on the maximally-nice end, and that there must be some amount of niceness-padding so excessive that will annoy even those who prefer prefer more of it in general.
Oh, yes, I’ll certainly agree with that. Even the examples in the original post were a little too fluffy for my taste, and I’m the one who’s a stickler for courtesy. There’s certainly a balance to be struck—enough, but no more—which I haven’t emphasized enough for how important it is. Thanks for the reminder.
I wonder how much striking that balance is part of the skill of being useful and courteous at the same time.