“Stop thinking and listen” has become a valuable tool in managing my wife. I use it to derail the common Female Misapprehension Cascade. Deploy this phrase as soon as it becomes apparent that a woman is mentally permuting what you are actually saying according to some undeterminable idea she had which she substituted for the first thing you said.
If you’re petty or agitated, this doesn’t work very well; you come off poorly. I usually interrupt her with some non-verbal noise, make intense eye contact, and say in a calm, strong voice, “Stop thinking … and listen.” I nailed this delivery by accident and intuition the first time.
I have found this to be an extremely effective tactic, both when my wife is capable of reasoning and when she is not. In the former case, it allows her to consciously regroup and assess the situation. Otherwise, it serves as a submission pivot.
Female Misapprehension Cascade
Did you come up with this term, Eumaios? Never heard it before, but instantly recognized it…hilarious!
“Stop thinking….listen.”
Gonna try this one next time the wife goes into FMC mode.
That one’s mine, Keoni Galt. The inspiration was ESR’s coinage: “error cascade”.
http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=1642
Very well done.
“Talking” is too demanding.
“Thinking” is an unusually dominant interrupt that displays complete familiarity and contempt for her internal mental workings.
Unfortunately I can’t think of a time recently when I could’ve used this.
Joseph, I would say “complete familiarity and tolerance“.
Lol, touche
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This was awesome, I’ve linked it before and just re-linked at VD’s place.