You can generalize this to thinking about what other reasons people might have to ask the question that aren’t nice and then signal that it’s not those.
In this case you can come off as curious instead of smugly superior if you forfeit the superior position of having all the answers
You can generalize this to thinking about what other reasons people might have to ask the question that aren’t nice and then signal that it’s not those.
In this case you can come off as curious instead of smugly superior if you forfeit the superior position of having all the answers