I endorse the lack of an obligation not to make a straight-up reply
Hearing that spoken back I wish it used words with a much more subtle and mild connotation that ‘obligation’. Unfortunately none sprang to mind either then or now. “Expectation” didn’t quite fit either. I mean that thing where the natural flow of the conversation makes a certain kind of response seem like it is the thing that fits.
(nods) I endorse the lack of an obligation not to make a straight-up reply. (Also, that sentence should be taken out and shot.)
Hearing that spoken back I wish it used words with a much more subtle and mild connotation that ‘obligation’. Unfortunately none sprang to mind either then or now. “Expectation” didn’t quite fit either. I mean that thing where the natural flow of the conversation makes a certain kind of response seem like it is the thing that fits.
“norm”? “convention”?
“Cue”? Or “obligation of a certain X-culture heuristic where that X-culture is itself not obligatory”.