Nonviolent Communication

↻ 2026-07-27

Helpful and practical, particularly for deescalation and for discussions which have already gone contentious. It gives you something to do when a conversation is heating up, which is more than most books of this kind manage.

It is also clearly awkward and stilted for everyday use. I don’t think that makes it useless every day, but it does mean you can’t expect to speak this way and convey a direct message at the same time. Sometimes the direct message is the thing that’s needed, and this is not the technique for that.

The anecdotes are sometimes hilarious, mostly in a stilted, awkward way. The examples read like transcripts from a place where nobody is ever in a hurry and everyone has agreed in advance to be patient. Strange, but useful nonetheless, and I remember the odd ones better than I’d remember reasonable ones.

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