Questions alert…

When the telephone rings there is an automatic urge to pick it up and talk to the other side, even if you don’t know (or don’t bother to see) who it is.
It almost takes… special training to just let it ring.
Something similar happens with questions. No matter how improper or indiscreet a question is, there is an automatic urge to answer it, even if you protest against it in the beginning.
And it sure takes training to just let it go, ignore it totally, but truly not be annoyed.

A Greek saying tells us that “the tongue has no bones, but it breaks bones”

Some people use questions not for the original invention and use, like to learn something, but for intrusion maneuvers.
And as with lies, if you do one thing for too long, it does not become only an automated habit, but you really become good at it.

Even if you have nothing to hide, it is a good idea to use strategy too, and “let the phone ring” on people like that.

Speaking of strategy, here you have a small guide that of course you can improve all by yourself.
 
One question asked is a representative approaching with a white flag.
(Use an old Indian trick. Behead the representative and send his head back wrapped in the flag)
Two questions mean that you are definitely under attack.
(You must redirect, outmaneuver and crash your opponent)
Three questions is the indirect surrounding maneuver.
(Get out of there any way you can)
Four questions mean that you have lost your ground!
(Ritual suicide recommended)
Five questions mean that you have fallen into enemy hands (no time for suicide or yellow?) and you are now interrogated!
(and I’m out of recommendations…)

The “let you talk” maneuver
The greatest trick of them all, or in other words, that’s how psychiatrists live successfully, doing nothing.
The opponent “invites” you to talk about yourself, or a subject, pressing your ego button. For doing so, there are no questions, there are only “suggestions” and even the question mark (?) is avoided.  
It’s brilliant, it’s classic, it always works!
You tell everything, and even more, you have no brakes and you have no clue what happened. In the end your opponent walks away with the loot and a smile.    
Until one day, when you find out, and you do the “bang your head against the wall maneuver”
I recommend basement walls for your banging!
Hypothetical questions
“What would you do if you where attacked by a T-Rex dinosaur?”
-I don’t know what I would do! Run and scream with my hands over my head I guess. That’s what you want to hear? Or maybe see?

Hypothetical questions, of any kind, are supposed to be a test of character. Their scenarios are usually stupid, as much as the people who do them.
In my experience you can almost never conclude what would someone do or not do, until the occasion rises.
Sadly, hypothetical questions are being used by modern companies, either in a written but mostly in a verbal form.
Hypothetical questions mean that you have to make something up from fantasy, in order to imagine and assume from there on, what would happen in reality.
If this is not a catastrophe by itself already, the “answer” will surely do the job!
But if by any chance you see a T-Rex dinosaur, start your running and screaming, this might wake you up! 
The interview
(This is for the rich and famous)
Interviews have sad endings.
Like for example, you say something and they twist it around, by taking a sentence from what you said that will be your sentence!
There is one interview that you will absolutely, never, ever regret.
And noooo, it is not the pre-urgent, pre-written or pre-recorded interview…
It is the no interview at all!
Say what you have to say through your work and whatever it is that you do and enjoy your success and money… 
Going along
One of the most dangerous maneuvers is as follows.
If you go along and answer anything, but anything, that comes your way to a person that uses questions for intrusion, then the only one exposed in the end will be the one who asks.
Because if he realizes at one point that you’re giving him what he wants, he will go further than you can imagine in his asking.
But if one goes far, if one goes too far, it might take him to the point of no return!

                                 “It has been said that social occasions are only warfare concealed”                                                                                                                          Khan
                                                                     (from the Star Trek series/Stardate3141.9)

August 23, 2006