This is one of those contexts in which it helps to understand that “Guess” culture is a very Ask-culture way of describing Hint culture. As a guest/subordinate in a Hint culture you don’t express desires or preferences unsolicited. It’s the responsibility of the host/boss to indirectly convey to you what the range of appropriate choices are, and you select from those. (Which of course requires being able to recognize that this is what’s going on in the first place.)
Yes, a hint is an ambiguous request, agreed. As to whether it’s efficient or not, that depends a lot on what outputs we’re measuring. Ambiguity is often valuable.
This is one of those contexts in which it helps to understand that “Guess” culture is a very Ask-culture way of describing Hint culture. As a guest/subordinate in a Hint culture you don’t express desires or preferences unsolicited. It’s the responsibility of the host/boss to indirectly convey to you what the range of appropriate choices are, and you select from those. (Which of course requires being able to recognize that this is what’s going on in the first place.)
Hinting is just ambiguous and inefficient asking. If you don’t believe that, try ignoring the hints and see if they get mad.
Yes, a hint is an ambiguous request, agreed.
As to whether it’s efficient or not, that depends a lot on what outputs we’re measuring.
Ambiguity is often valuable.