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"Yes" means "yes." "No" means "no." "Yes" does not mean "no." Sometimes I get extremely annoyed when people mindlessly say "yes" when they really don't mean it. Note that I wrote "sometimes." When you are in a social situation, you may find yourself conversing with an extremely boring person, an incredibly intelligent person excitedly talking about a subject of which you know nothing, or an important person towards whom you are indifferent or hostile but in whom you must feign interest. In such cases, nodding with an insincere look of amazement or interest while murmuring, "Yes, yes, I see!" is perfectly acceptable and understandable. However, when you are furiously trying to complete a project at work or handling large sums of money, you are in a completely different situation, and different situations require different actions. Let's say you're a student who is confused about calculus. If your teacher were to explain a concept to you and then ask you if you understood, do you think saying "yes" (when you actually don't understand) will boost your grade? Of course not! Let's say you're starting on a huge multi-million dollar project at work, and a colleague is trying to explain the different phases of the project. When the colleague asks, "Got it?", you should not say "yes" if you did not "get" it! I wish people could analyze their situations more carefully and not let their pride get in the way of being honest and admitting that they are confused about things. Don't they realize how much time, effort, and money they would save? I work with people who do this all the time, and they double and sometimes triple the amount of work I have to do because of their inability to just say "no." They're lucky that I've managed to restrain myself from punching them in the face.
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