imagine a friend from a different country is visiting and will stay with you for a while. You’re exchanging some text messages beforehand in order to figure out how to spend your time together. You want to show your friend the city, and you want to be very accommodating and make sure all their preferences will be met. So you simply ask them: “What do you want to do”? And maybe you add “I’m completely fine with anything!” to ensure you’re really introducing no constraints whatsoever and you two can do exactly what your friend desires.
An additional angle on situations like this: Your friend may be hoping to choose something that’s positively enjoyable for you. Saying “I’m completely fine with anything” may not meet that bar, and doesn’t give any hints as to what would. To illustrate directly, compare “There are ten restaurants nearby and I’m fine with any of them” vs “There are ten restaurants nearby, I’ve been to them all and I love them all”. I think there are people who would respond to the second with “Great, I’ll look them up and pick my favorite” and would find the first frustrating (and may respond by probing, “Well, are there any that you particularly like?” [And if you really don’t care about food, then their hope to find a restaurant you enjoy is destined for frustration.]).
In this case there’s also the aspect that, since you live there (likely for some years) and they’re from another country, you likely know a lot more about the local offerings than they do (not guaranteed—perhaps you’re an ascetic who doesn’t explore such things and they’re a tourist who has researched your town—but likely), so in a division-of-labor sense it’s likely appropriate for you to volunteer info first.
That second aspect is indeed about the pure computational problem. The first aspect is a combination of the computation/search problem and an emotional negotiation element.
An additional angle on situations like this: Your friend may be hoping to choose something that’s positively enjoyable for you. Saying “I’m completely fine with anything” may not meet that bar, and doesn’t give any hints as to what would. To illustrate directly, compare “There are ten restaurants nearby and I’m fine with any of them” vs “There are ten restaurants nearby, I’ve been to them all and I love them all”. I think there are people who would respond to the second with “Great, I’ll look them up and pick my favorite” and would find the first frustrating (and may respond by probing, “Well, are there any that you particularly like?” [And if you really don’t care about food, then their hope to find a restaurant you enjoy is destined for frustration.]).
In this case there’s also the aspect that, since you live there (likely for some years) and they’re from another country, you likely know a lot more about the local offerings than they do (not guaranteed—perhaps you’re an ascetic who doesn’t explore such things and they’re a tourist who has researched your town—but likely), so in a division-of-labor sense it’s likely appropriate for you to volunteer info first.
That second aspect is indeed about the pure computational problem. The first aspect is a combination of the computation/search problem and an emotional negotiation element.