I'll admit. Every so often we get ambushed with outside-of-work questions or statements about something you really DON'T want to chat about....especially with co-workers.
As an example, simply plucking something from the ongoing battles and war that have been taking place since the birth of the internet, let's go with "moon landing".
If you have no idea what I'm referring to and you have some time on your hands, you're more than welcome to jump down the rabbit hole, dip your feet, and check it out.
We're humans. We get passionate about quirky stuff. It's part of what makes us unique. You never know what lies deep inside someone's curiosity. So if you want to extinguish the conversation about something you couldn't really care less about simply do this:
Hear them out for around 120 seconds. Any more time could get their dopamine raging and we don't want that.
Butt in and say, "Yea. Wow. I've heard about this and it's interesting" and then immediately say...
"Look. I go back and forth on so much stuff like this. Instead of planting my flag on one side of the other, I would consider this to be one of those 'I'm 51% on board, and 49% skeptical'. With this, I'm a 51%'er. Does that make sense? Maybe next week I'll swing back to 49%. Who knows. Hey, I gotta run. Talk to you soon."
The 51%/49% solution diffuses ALL controversy and it does it fast. This provides you an easy solution to give your abductor the affirmation they're looking for and a quick escape path at the same time.
Good luck out there!
steve@nehezrec.com
