We’ve all been there. You enter a room with two people (family/friends) talking and you were too late in the conversation so you don’t know who/what they’re talking about. You ask but they keep talking. After you ask a couple times, one finally tells you.

Sure, you get a response, but you have to nag “Wait! What are we talking about!?” several times and it feels like a lot of work for so little payoff.

Well, it’s much easier to get an answer when you assume an uninterested approach, then say, “oh, you’re talking about …”. The “…” is something intentionally wrong. This will get a result much quicker because one of the talkers will be much more inclined to correct you than to answer a question.

I’ve done this a few times and had successful results. Yesterday, I walked into the kitchen and Luke and Papa were talking. I knew that if I said, “What are we talking about?” it would take a while to get an answer. So instead, I said, “ah, musical scales?” and Luke said, “no, teaching.” Aha! I got an answer instantly ’cause he was correcting me instead of relieving me of my curiosity.

That’s a tip kids, write it down.