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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2912 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 16, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

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Is it 100% shame? Is any part of it "I don't want to let someone see what's on my screen because then they might talk to me about it and that sounds annoying"?

Yeah I'm kind of the same way, and I think it's mostly this -- for example, and interaction that started ~as soon as I learned to read and more or less persists to this day:

Annoying person: "Whatcha reading?"

Me, looking at them over the top of a book (which has an obvious title on the cover): "A book."

In neurotypical, this means "I want to talk to you and I am using the book as an icebreaker" (I don't know why they can't just say that, though). They will eventually go away if you show you are more interested in the book than in talking back.

In neurotypical, this means "I want to talk to you and I am using the book as an icebreaker" (I don't know why they can't just say that, though).

I figured this out by the time I was about 6, but "he wants to talk to me" != "I want to talk to him" -- IME supposedly neurotypical people are surprisingly bad at internalizing this...

They will eventually go away if you show you are more interested in the book than in talking back.

You'd think that my stock answer (followed by going back to my book, with maybe a penetrating stare thrown in) would be a strong hint, but people can be pretty persistent.

Well yes, because turning down a requested conversation is rude.

The thing is, these sorts of people never appreciate it when you interrupt them when they're doing something they value. Or constantly try to rope them into your hobby when they have clearly indicated a lack of interest. I just wish people who enjoy small talk would recognize that interrupting someone's book/game/movie to have a chat is just as rude as interrupting someone's conversation to make them play a game with you. We should respect how others choose to spend their leisure time.

If you want to read a book or play a game unmolested, there are places to do that in- your house, a library, etc.

I'm cool with that

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