The Hidden Rules of Conversation
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN uses it as a short, clear explanation of implied meaning in conversation and the cooperative principle.
What it is
Tom Scott explains Gricean maxims, the unwritten guidelines that shape how we understand each other. He uses examples such as why 'asbestos-free cereal' sounds suspicious.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2020 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Recommends jsight · 2023-09 · on “Falcon 180B Released”
This video covers the concept pretty well: [this video] It is pretty normal to try to incorporate the extranneous details into the reply.
Cites godelski · 2020-08 · on “Science and scientific expertise are more important than ever”
> I believe it is deeply unethical, inefficient and really a complete waste of everyone's time and energy to assume based on some weak superficial heuristic rhetorical cues that they are simply repeating a divisive talking point that you've heard elsewhere. I'm sorry, I was trying to convey something else. That language itself has limitations and that we imply things naturally. I think Tom Scott did a good video[0] explaining the high level aspects of this, but it seems like you might be aware of this. But there's much more. Language is full of cues and a priori assumptions. You cannot avoid this. The idea that "what you mean, what you say, and what is heard" being different things is not a
Cites godelski · 2021-01 · on “Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says”
> Ignorance is not an excuse. Taking it that you aren't trolling (which I'm not certain you aren't) ignorance is an excuse. It is not a good excuse when knowledge is common but it is a great excuse when knowledge is uncommon (as is the case here, at least to Americans). Unless you expect everyone to be omniscient then this is exceedingly disingenuous and will just lead to people thinking you're being a jerk. The other part I need to add is that this is also how we typically talk. "The British...", "The Irish...", "Americans...", etc. I'll admit that we could have more nuance and better communication by being more specific but what is stated here follows the Cooperative Principle[0][1]. It is
Cites sli · 2021-06 · on “CodePerfect 95 – A fast IDE for Go”
There are these things called Grice's Maxims of Conversation, and this one is called the "Maxim of Quantity." The extra unneeded information is strange because it would normally be assumed. Tom Scott's example[0] is "vegan tomato." Felt like sharing because it's kinda neat to see it described by someone in the wild. [0]: [this video]
Cites clankyclanker · 2023-03 · on “Disney Layoffs 7000 People”
Embracing Grice’s maxims may help here [0]? Being a pit of cynicism isn’t a particularly nuanced take, please do better than that. 0: [this video]
Cites perching_aix · 2026-05 · on “I Found Ultra-Pure Quantum Crystals in an Abandoned Mine in the Atacama Desert”
I can play this game too: I never actually said they are a bad judge of what comments are botted, just merely suggested it as a possibility. Otherwise: [LINK] [this video] Suffice to say, I'd thus kindly reject being a "bad comprehender of what words mean", thank you very much. It was a perfectly reasonable initial reading of their comment as far as I'm concerned. It's ambiguous. Happens. The fact that "is this AI? this is AI." is a damn near fixture of every thread these days, doesn't help.