“Obligated to Respond” by Duncan Sabien (Inactive)

And, a new take on guess culture vs ask culture

Author's note: These days, my thoughts go onto my substack by default, instead of onto LessWrong. Everything I write becomes free after a week or so, but it's only paid subscriptions that make it possible for me to write. If you find a coffee's worth of value in this or any of my other work, please consider signing up to support me; every bill I can pay with writing is a bill I don’t have to pay by doing other stuff instead. I also accept and greatly appreciate one-time donations of any size.

There's a piece of advice I see thrown around on social media a lot that goes something like:

“It's just a comment! You don’t have to respond! You can just ignore it!”

I think this advice is (a little bit) naïve, and the situation is generally [...]

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Outline:

(00:10) And, a new take on guess culture vs ask culture

(07:10) On guess culture and ask culture

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First published:
September 9th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/8jkB8ezncWD6ai86e/obligated-to-respond

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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