How to Win Friends and Influence People | Friday, period 1

[nuclear_snide]

Kanan had a techinicolor dalmatian with him today. He seemed less perturbed about that fact than even he felt like he should be, but he couldn't quite shake the thing, and he hadn't managed to nerve himself to dragging it back off the island and leaving it with its own kind again before the island had moved on.

That, and it cried whenever he left it behind in the apartment.

"How to win people to your way of thinking," he began, and then set the book down on the desk. "This chapter is full of things like 'avoiding arguments' and 'let the other person talk a lot.' Oh, and my personal favorite, 'let them think that your idea was their idea.'" Or something like that, anyway. Kanan was paraphrasing. He shook his head a bit. "And yeah, I guess people do love listening to themselves talk, but the amount of seeding you'd have to do in a conversation to make a person have the exact same idea as you while they're doing all the talking seems less like work and more like some kind of top spy espionage or something."

"Things like that tend to work best in arguments," Bob said. "Get them really annoyed, and they'll agree to things before they know what they're doing. Emotions are your tools." He grinned.

Kanan shook his head.

"A little pleasantness can go a long way. And actually taking into consideration the person you're talking to. You want to win someone over, engage them in a situation where they're comfortable and not on their guard. Ask 'em out for caf. Coffee." He gave Bob a side-eye, and then sighed. "Or you could bribe them."

That seemed to be an answer that came up a lot this semester already, okay?

It was a time-honored tradition! It worked!

"Trickery's a great way, too," Bob offered. "If they're not the sort to be won over by pure logic - if they are, well, there you go, just find a logical argument - get them to feel sorry for you, or as I said, annoy them, or just get them up in arms about something unrelated. Overly emotional people are less likely to accurately judge the worth of what you want. Get them on your side or violently against you, and they're easy to manipulate."

Which he'd actually learned from hundreds of years of manipulating people with talking, and not simply from watching politicians.

"So, pair up again, and pick something interesting, then try to get your partner to agree to your point of view. Any questions?"

Comments

Sign in

[nuclear_snide]

Persuasively

Re: Sign in

[crimson_sister]

Lucille Sharpe

Re: Sign in

[boneyard_girl]

Ada Miller

Re: Sign in

[snipsnspecks]

Ahsoka Tano

Re: Sign in

[intotheout]

Gratuity Tucci

Re: Sign in

[omgnochecksyet]

Eric Bittle

Re: Sign in

[notamascot]

Kaylin Neya

Listen to the lecture

[nuclear_snide]

Wonder yet again how these two ever got to teach this class

Re: Listen to the lecture

[crimson_sister]

Once again, Lucille found the teachers' advice sound and helpful. She listened to the lecture with interest, taking notes.

Persuade!

[nuclear_snide]

Pair up and persuade each other of something. Bonus points for making the other person actually do something.

Re: Persuade!

[crimson_sister]

Lucille looked around for someone to team up with, considering which strategy to go for.

[I'll be a bit SP-ish, but if anyone wants to I'd love to do this exercise.]

Talk to the teachers

[nuclear_snide]

Once they ping in

Re: Talk to the teachers

[nuclear_snide]

Bob was here and walking around to help out as needed (and learn new things if anybody had anything he hadn't thought of before).

Re: Talk to the teachers

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan was here if anybody needed anything.

So was Kanan's dog.

He still wasn't entirely convinced that the thing really was a dog, but it seemed to be doing all of the appropriate doggy things at the moment, like worrying at Kanan's boot with his teeth, so he was going to give Dog (who needed a better name) a pass.

Re: Talk to the teachers

[intotheout]

Tip had spent the entire lecture watching Kanan's dog. Rather than pay any attention to the lecture. When she was supposed to be persuading people, she instead went over to get a better look at it. And maybe pet it.

"It literally followed you home, huh?"

Re: Talk to the teachers

[uncertain_dume]

"And everywhere else since," Kanan agreed, giving Gratuity a wry smile. "I've tried pointing out that I don't know the first thing about dogs, but he doesn't seem to be listening."

Dog-Real-Name-Pending looked up at Kanan, tongue lolling out of his head, and panted happily. Kanan waved a hand, a sort of silent 'go ahead,' and Insert-Name-Here trotted over to sniff at Tip's knees. He was still a short pup.

"Funny," he added, "that's the only thing he hasn't listened to so far."

Re: Talk to the teachers

[intotheout]

"Sometimes pets pick you," Tip said, crouching down to say a proper hello to the dog. "That's how I ended up with Bill." Who wasn't quite a pet but wasn't quite not a pet either, so. "And kind of how my family got our dog Lincoln, but that was more his previous owner and I choosing each other, so we inherited him."

Re: Talk to the teachers

[uncertain_dume]

"I've never really had a pet before," Kanan admitted, watching To-Be-Determined happily sniff and enthusiastically butt-wiggle-tail-wag as Tip crouched down to get acquainted. "And don't get me wrong, I actually do like animals. But this was really not the plan."

The plan had always kind of involved a solo life on the run across the galaxy from the forces of the Emperor and certain death. It hadn't ever included a multicolored sidekick that whined when left alone.

"I had no idea ending up with one was so easy."

Re: Talk to the teachers

[intotheout]

"Easy's one way to put it," Tip said. "Or lucky. Mom used to say that animals are good judges of character. But then all the cats on Earth got all snuggly with the Boov invaders. Turns out they're mostly just really good judges of 'smells like they have food'." Tip gently ruffled the dog's ears. "What's its name?"

Re: Talk to the teachers

[uncertain_dume]

Boov, like those ones that Tip had pointed out to him back at the restaurant? Kanan considered the word 'invaders' for a moment, filed that away, and then nodded a little.

If nothing else, cats would be cats.

"I haven't really come up with one yet," he admitted, shrugging awkwardly. "I was kind of hoping I'd be inspired or something, but mostly he's just been 'Dog' in the interim." A pause, and then he added, "I might have been procrastinating. If I had named him before we left Frankticon, there's no way I would have been able to put him back."

Which hadn't happened anyway. So.

Re: Talk to the teachers

[intotheout]

"Well, it's a little late for that now," Tip said. "'Dog' is okay, but it's a little on the nose. Naming your pets after animals works better when it's a little ironic. Mom's cat's name is Pig."

Talk to the TA

[nuclear_snide]

Once she pings in

Re: Talk to the TA

[crimson_sister]

Unlike last week the TA was here. Should her teachers ask, she would mention sleep and dark dreams. Should anyone else ask, she would just give them a condescending look.

OOC

[nuclear_snide]

Bonus points to Kanan for not actually even mentioning Force persuasion

Re: OOC

[uncertain_dume]

THE TEMPTATION WAS THERE. HE PERSEVERED.