Abstract things that annoy me

[simont]

The sentiment ‘it's not much to ask’, presented as the sole justification of why people should do something you want. When everybody has a ‘not much to ask’ request and they're all different (or, occasionally, when the same person thinks of a different one every week for a year), they add up until collectively they are a lot to ask – so some of them have to go unfulfilled, despite each of them individually being so small that the asker couldn't imagine how anyone might have a good reason not to do it.

Don't just point out that the cost is low and leave it at that. Show why the benefit (whether to you, to whoever you're asking for it, or to somebody else) outweighs it!

Comments

[ptc24.livejournal.com]

Part 6 in a series, it seems. Why did you stop numbering them?

[simont]

I lost count :-)

[ptc24.livejournal.com]

You could start renumbering them - the tags make it easy to find the old members in the series. It's not too much to ask, is it? :)

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Was that entire thread started to set up for the punchline, or was it just a drive-by appropriate moment? :)

[simont]

I wondered that too :-)

[ptc24.livejournal.com]

A: Thinks that the series used to be numbered
B: Looks up numbering via the tag
C: Thinks about commenting about it
D: Comments about it
E: Thinks of quip about not being too much to ask
F: Makes quip.

I'm not sure if the ordering is ABCDEF or ABCEDF or ABECDF, so I can't answer for sure. My memory is faulty...