You're Terrible, You Suck, What's Wrong With You, etc

[Pumpkin]

This kind of became a joke but whenever sharky is playing a video game or something else where he needs to win, I used to try to encourage by saying "You're doing great, you can do it" and such. But when that wasn't working I started saying "You Suck, that's terrible, how are you so bad' as a joke and it usually works coincidentally because by the time I start saying that he's been at it a while and is probably getting the hang of it.

What type of encouragement do you use? Are you a reverse psychology type or do you just give straight up supportive words? Something else?

[Formalhaut]

I do sometimes say 'reverse psychology' phrases in jest or with obvious sarcasm, but now and again people didn't quite get the sarcasm, which led to some interesting conversations.

I tend to just stick with supportive comments now.

[Freya]

My favorite phrase when riding with the boyfriend is "You drive bad and should feel bad" Because he likes sliding vehicles and the like. It's my "drive nicer" phrase. It's not really an encouragement and more of a nag haha

[Ayen]

I stick with supportive encouragement. Never was one for reverse psychology.

[Shauna]

Depends on the situation.

If I am speaking to That There Matthew then it is probably going to be 90% destruction words 10% "support".

[Vermachtnis]

My thing to say is, "Never thought about doing it like that." And variations thereof. Whether it's supportive or not, is circumstantial. And I use the tried and true, "NAILED IT!" after witnessing a spectacular failure.

[FFNut]

It depends on the person, if its someone I know well I'll tease a little bit.

[sharkythesharkdogg]

I love giving people a hard time. I've always seemed to find friends who revel in giving each other back handed compliments and cynical feedback.

I've always found it genuinely, and so have they, but I imagine anyone listening it thinks we're complete assholes.

I've learned to tell when a person doesn't have the same sense of humor (most of the time) and adjust my encouragement accordingly.

[Fynn]

Most of the time, I need positive reinforcement.

[Anzai]

While it always feels like being a bit too typical I tend to give positive encouragement most of the time, unless I happen to know in detail what's being doe wrong then I'll offer helpful information occasionally.... Though sometimes an Epic Failure leads to me bursting into laughter. Yet I'm still trying to figure out why I always do the exact opposite to motivate myself, I've been running on little more than self-loathing through most troublesome endeavors for years.

[Karifean]

People really close to me I'll tease.
People who aren't that close to me but are still good friends I'll encourage positively.

[Shorty]

People really close to me I'll tease.
People who aren't that close to me but are still good friends I'll encourage positively.

This sounds about right!

[escobert]

encouragement good or bad doesn't really help me. For me it's just gotta come from me.

[Dat Matt]

It's a Scottish thing to make your belittle your friends at every opertunity. In this example, I'll use our good Friend Daniel Towns as our subject.


We once played a game called Rayman Legends Drinking Football in which you play this game and every time you scored a goal you have to drink. Whenever we conceded a goal, rather than using words of encouragement such as "We'll get them next time" or "At least they have to drink now" it usually ended up in the following:

"You have one job, goalie. God Dammit!"
"Way to suck really really hard... again"
"Oh hey, look at that, we lost again. God sake I want to team with shauna, at least then I'll get drunk"

The list goes on.

[Iceglow]

It all depends on whom I'm talking to really. I'm not exactly about to go at my autistic niece with the same level of sarcasm and wit I use with my sisters other kids when trying to get them doing stuff. Same with the littlest of them, they simply won't understand it and get upset.

Then there's work settings where I can't really call someone trout at their job. I try and be helpful there, if they're doing badly I offer suggestions and advice on how I'd improve the situation if I could. Some people appreciate it others don't but it's on offer. I've been in my post a year now and some of the resourcers I work along side haven't so I give them the benefit of experience or suggest why we'd want something done the way we do.

With my best mates? Well they're all smurfing tossers anyhow! So of course my idea of encouragement with them and from them is "smurfs sake, how smurfing trout are you? God damn it you asswipe!"