The Crit Knight

Enough time has likely passed to remove the sting of this for anyone that had a bad crit.

Last year, Kevin and I arrived at the conclusion that some people in conversation deploy what we now call the "shield of agreement." It goes like this:

commenter: "I think you really have a problem"
commentee (cutting in): "Yes, I understand"
commenter: "when we talk to you I don't get the sense you are listening"
commentee (cutting in): "I see"
commenter: "You really ought to work on this for the future"
commentee (cutting in): "I agree"

It's some sort of combination of active listening and trying to get control of a conversation and at least I think very disruptive to the exchange of information. At the end of one of these exchanges it is fairly clear that nothing was really heard. The person you were talking to has effectively utilized their shield of agreement to protect themself.

Anyway, earlier this year a few of us were unwinding a little and discussing this bit of armor and we decided that there were actually several devices in play, then someone had another idea, things got written on the board, and it was out of control.

Here's where it wound up:

Of course, now I'll have to ask students to come up with a rival middle ages figure to make it even.