I got stuck looking at the context of it, and came up with 'riddle' from that.
If you're asking me a question, you want an answer. Maybe you're working on a crossword puzzle. Maybe you're trying to classify living things and need to determine the decision points. These are all 'work' contexts. But if you don't want the answer for something you're doing -- and this is the sort of question that rarely comes up in a work context -- then you are asking me to test me. Specifically, to test my intelligence. Most people think testing intelligence is best done by "tricks", so they can have that "aha!" moment, or feel superior to you when they know the trick answer and you don't. (Can you tell how I feel about such things?) Likewise, there was only a box for one answer. So clearly there is a "right" answer. Ergo, this must have been a trick.
This fought with the other contextual info "but wispfox hates such games", and made me _very_ confused why she was asking it, and so proudly...
Other answers: "They are both tiny" "They are both under five letters" "No soap, radio"
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Framing is so important
Date: 2008-04-09 05:04 pm (UTC)If you're asking me a question, you want an answer. Maybe you're working on a crossword puzzle. Maybe you're trying to classify living things and need to determine the decision points. These are all 'work' contexts. But if you don't want the answer for something you're doing -- and this is the sort of question that rarely comes up in a work context -- then you are asking me to test me. Specifically, to test my intelligence. Most people think testing intelligence is best done by "tricks", so they can have that "aha!" moment, or feel superior to you when they know the trick answer and you don't. (Can you tell how I feel about such things?) Likewise, there was only a box for one answer. So clearly there is a "right" answer. Ergo, this must have been a trick.
This fought with the other contextual info "but
Other answers:
"They are both tiny"
"They are both under five letters"
"No soap, radio"