Hacker News Reader

"You are not smart" is an insult. "Your plan will never work because of X, Y, Z." is direct/blunt. "I'd suggest you make changes X, Y, Z to the plan, because I don't think your plan will work as it stands right now." is maybe a bit more sugarcoated. The last example is more tentative, less authoritative, and hinges on the person being receptive to your input.

View on HN

How is telling someone exactly what to do less authoritative?

It is a suggestion, not a prescription. If the person doesn't like it, they can come up with other techniques.

It's generally not helpful to say "Your plan won't work because of A, B and C" and then leave it at that. Are you trying to find problems or to help?

Don't get trapped into thinking that pointing problems is helping. It's good in school when you're a teacher, but almost nowhere else.

I'm 4 days late to this party, but as a teacher, it's not good there either :-)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com