Where to Cut
Some questions produce terrible answers because one word is missing:
When?
“This works.”
“This is safe.”
“This person is reliable.”
“This strategy is a bad idea.”
Maybe.
Under what conditions?
A condition cut asks what has to be true for the answer to hold.
Example: Advice
“Just be persistent.”
Sometimes excellent advice.
Sometimes how you become the reason someone starts checking whether the parking lot has security cameras.
Persistence can help when:
you are learning a difficult skill;
progress is slow but real;
rejection is coming from the difficulty of the task itself.
Persistence becomes a very different thing when:
another person has said no;
the costs are escalating;
the underlying situation has changed;
continuing is making the problem worse.
The advice did not suddenly become nonsense.
The conditions changed.
Example: Safety
“Is this safe?”
Safe under what conditions?
A medication may be safe at one dose and dangerous at another.
A road may be safe in daylight and dangerous during an ice storm.
A machine may be safe when maintained properly and hazardous after a critical part fails.
“Safe” is rarely a property floating alone in space.
It usually belongs to a relationship between a thing and the conditions around it.
Example: Trust
“Can I rely on this person?”
Maybe they are extremely reliable about:
showing up when they said they would;
keeping private information private;
helping during emergencies;
but terrible about:
remembering birthdays;
answering texts;
returning borrowed Tupperware to civilization.
That does not require one global verdict of:
RELIABLE HUMAN
or
UNTRUSTWORTHY SCOUNDREL
Ask what you are relying on them for, and under what circumstances.
When to Try This Cut
Use a condition cut when:
people are arguing in absolutes;
something seems true only sometimes;
an exception appears to break a rule;
advice works brilliantly for one person and terribly for another;
your answer keeps becoming “it depends.”
Ask:
Depends on what?
Then name the condition.
“It depends” is not the end of the analysis.
Sometimes it is where the useful part starts.
FOLLOW THE WIRES