Where does your head go if somebody asks you the question, what do you want?

It's hard to imagine that question without tone, isn't it? I mean, I imagine there's a nice version of that question, but usually if somebody's like, what do you want? Oh, crud. This is confrontational. I got to fight. You know, you're out in public and maybe you're just not paying attention. You stare at somebody on accident a little too long because you're spacing off

and they look at you, there's a real reasonable chance. They're going to be like, what do you want? That's not a friendly question when they ask it. If you go into a place of business in the person behind the counters, having a fussy day, and you walk in and they're like, what do you want? Oh man, this is not going well.

I'm probably taking my business somewhere else.

I feel weird. And you walk in and they're like, what do you want? Oh, man, this is not going well.

I'm probably taking my business somewhere else.

I feel weird.

If you're walking down the street and you kind of encounter somebody else and they're like,

what do you want?

Oh, crud.

Now I'm in a fight with this guy.

I mean, do I have to fight him now?

I think, what do you want?

Ask like that means that we have to fight him now? I think, what do you want? Ask like that means that we have to fight now.

That's deeply disappointing. It's a question that, at least in our culture, it is often

associated with something pretty confrontational. I suppose, what do you want? Could be a question

that would also happen around asking where we should go for dinner.

What do you want to get?

I don't know.

What do you want?

That could be a friendly or neutral version of the question.

But there's another version of the question that isn't aggressive and that certainly isn't neutral.

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