Picture the same sentence said three times. Once to a friend who asked. Once to a room of forty strangers. Once into a camera. The words are identical. What they land on is not: one person's attention, forty people's, and an audience nobody can count.
For the hearerattention
vsvs
For the speakera promise
A word costs the hearer attention, the beam from lesson 1. It costs the speaker something too. Once said, it is a promise about what the speaker thinks or knows, and lesson 5 showed what promises cost. So every sentence has a price on both sides, and the price depends on who is at the other end.
A friendasked
↓→
Your viewone promise
A friend asks what you think of their essay, and you tell them. Who pays what?
They spend attention they chose to spend; you make a promise to one person who asked for it.
Right. Asked for, heard by one, kept by one. This is the cheapest a sentence gets, on both sides.
Only the friend pays, because they asked.
Not yet. Your words are now a promise the friend can hold you to. A sentence costs the one who says it something too.
Nobody pays. It is just a chat.
Not yet. The friend spends their beam and you spend a promise. Small, but not nothing, and both grow as the audience does.
A friendasked, one promise
++
A roomforty, mostly unasked
++
A recordinguncounted, for ever
Now the room of forty. Most did not ask. Each spends attention on a sentence they may not want, and the speaker's promise is now held by forty people, some of whom will repeat it without the room around it. And the camera is lesson 7's unknown, unlimited audience, keeping the promise for ever.
Each card is a sentence being said. Who is it really for?
One card at a time. Tap the pile it belongs to.
Card 1 of 6
Answering a question a classmate asked
Posting your view on a news story nobody asked you about
Telling a friend, in private, that they hurt you
Arguing with a stranger in a comment thread
Explaining a mistake to the one person it affected
A caption written for whoever scrolls past
Answering a question a classmate asked → The person in front
Not yet. The person in front. They offered their attention by asking, and the answer is for them.
Posting your view on a news story nobody asked you about → An audience
Not yet. An audience. Nobody offered attention; the sentence goes out to whoever is passing.
Telling a friend, in private, that they hurt you → The person in front
Not yet. The person in front. It concerns one person, and that person is the only one who hears it.
Arguing with a stranger in a comment thread → An audience
Not yet. An audience. The stranger is one person, but a thread is a stage. The sentence is written for whoever reads it.
Explaining a mistake to the one person it affected → The person in front
Not yet. The person in front. The hearer has a reason to want the sentence, and nobody else needs it.
A caption written for whoever scrolls past → An audience
Not yet. An audience. Whoever scrolls past did not ask, and cannot be counted.
3The person in front
vsvs
3An audience
Right. Three and three. The test is whether the sentence is for the one person it concerns, who has a reason to want it, or for whoever happens to be passing. A thread, a feed and a room of strangers are passing.
Askedspent once
vsvs
Did not askspent twice
An old saying warns against throwing pearls to pigs. Take out the insult and a mechanism is left. A sentence given to someone who neither asked nor needed it is spent twice: attention taken from them, and a promise the speaker must keep to people who never asked. To the one who asked, only the promise costs.
Set how many people hear a sentence against how many of them asked for it, and watch the price. Made up to show the shape.
Attention offered0 people, made up
Attention taken2 people, made up
Who hears it: Two · Who asked: Nobody
Two hear it and nobody asked: 2 people's attention taken, and a promise to people who never asked.
Attention offered1 people, made up
Attention taken1 people, made up
Who hears it: Two · Who asked: Half
Two hear it and half asked: one person's attention given, one person's taken.
Attention offered2 people, made up
Attention taken0 people, made up
Who hears it: Two · Who asked: All of them
Two hear it and all of them asked: 2 people's attention given, nobody's taken. The promise is the only cost.
Attention offered0 people, made up
Attention taken40 people, made up
Who hears it: Forty · Who asked: Nobody
Forty hear it and nobody asked: 40 people's attention taken, and a promise to people who never asked.
Attention offered20 people, made up
Attention taken20 people, made up
Who hears it: Forty · Who asked: Half
Forty hear it and half asked: 20 people's attention given, 20 people's taken.
Attention offered40 people, made up
Attention taken0 people, made up
Who hears it: Forty · Who asked: All of them
Forty hear it and all of them asked: 40 people's attention given, nobody's taken. The promise is the only cost.
Attention offered0 people, made up
Attention taken1,000 people, made up
Who hears it: A thousand · Who asked: Nobody
A thousand hear it and nobody asked: 1000 people's attention taken, and a promise to people who never asked.
Attention offered500 people, made up
Attention taken500 people, made up
Who hears it: A thousand · Who asked: Half
A thousand hear it and half asked: 500 people's attention given, 500 people's taken.
Attention offered1,000 people, made up
Attention taken0 people, made up
Who hears it: A thousand · Who asked: All of them
A thousand hear it and all of them asked: 1000 people's attention given, nobody's taken. The promise is the only cost.
Where is a sentence spent only once?
Never. A sentence always costs someone.
Not yet. It always costs the speaker a promise. The frames show the hearer's side can be zero taken, when every hearer offered the beam.
Only when one person hears it.
Not yet. One person who did not ask is one unit of attention taken. The frames show that the asking decides it, not the count.
When all who hear it asked, however many that is.
Right. The frames put all the attention in the offered bar whenever asked is all of them. One friend or a thousand students, the price is the same shape.
Move both controls.
Fewer sentences→To those who asked→Fewer promises→More beam kept
Read as arithmetic, speaking little is a price, not a virtue. Fewer sentences, each to someone who asked, take less attention that was never offered and make fewer promises that have to be kept. The frames showed both prices. Which one to pay is the speaker's own call.
A journalistasks for a view
↓→
A studyunread
↓→
I have not read it
A scientist is asked by a journalist for a quick view on a study she has not read. She says she has not read it, and declines. Using this lesson, what did she avoid?
A promise about a study she had not read, made to readers she could not count.
Right. The quote would have been recorded and repeated without the room. Declining spent nothing, and saying "I have not read it" is itself a true sentence.
Nothing. A quick view is harmless.
Not yet. A quick view in print is a promise held by every reader, for ever. The lesson prices that above the cost of silence.
Her chance to be heard.
Not yet. She was heard: she said she had not read it. What she declined was a promise about something she did not yet have.
Lesson complete
A sentence costs the hearer attention and the speaker a promise; both cost least when the hearer asked.