“Please reconsider your use of adjectives” by Alfredo Parra 🔸

<p> I’ve been meaning to write about this for some time, and @titotal's recent post finally made me do it:</p>Thick red dramatic box emphasis mine.<p> I was going to post a comment in his post, but I think this topic deserves a post of its own.</p><p> My plea is simply: Please, oh please reconsider using adjectives that reflect a negative judgment (“bad”, “stupid”, “boring”) on the Forum, and instead stick to indisputable facts and observations (“I disagree”, “I doubt”, “I dislike”, etc.).</p><p> This suggestion is motivated by one of the central ideas behind nonviolent communication (NVC), which I’m a big fan of and which I consider a core life skill. The idea is simply that judgments (typically in the form of adjectives) are disputable/up to interpretation, and therefore can lead to completely unnecessary misunderstandings and hurt feelings:</p><ul> <li> Me: Ugh, the kitchen is dirty&nbsp;again. Why didn’t you do the dishes [...]</li></ul> <p>---</p> <p><b>First published:</b><br/> June 21st, 2025 </p> <p><b>Source:</b><br/> <a href="https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Fkh2Mpu3Jk7iREuvv/please-reconsider-your-use-of-adjectives?utm_source=TYPE_III_AUDIO&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_content=Source+URL+in+episode+description&utm_campaign=ai_narration" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Fkh2Mpu3Jk7iREuvv/please-reconsider-your-use-of-adjectives</a> </p> <p>---</p> <p>Narrated by <a href="https://type3.audio/?utm_source=TYPE_III_AUDIO&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_content=Narrated+by+TYPE+III+AUDIO&utm_term=ea_forum&utm_campaign=ai_narration" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">TYPE III AUDIO</a>.</p> <p>---</p><div style="max-width: 100%";><p><strong>Images from the article:</strong></p><a href="https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/13f42955c8fcf652b2e6c5ab5f3482efbb0298da955cc0bcaa7eec0f854b116d/su1ut7kcilz3cw7o9tnu" target="_blank"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/13f42955c8fcf652b2e6c5ab5f3482efbb0298da955cc0bcaa7eec0f854b116d/su1ut7kcilz3cw7o9tnu" alt="Thick red dramatic box emphasis mine." style="max-width: 100%;" /></a><p><em>Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try <a href="https://pocketcasts.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">Pocket Casts</a>, or another podcast app.</em></p></div>