Fine Tuning

That Hankinson
2 min readMar 2, 2025

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Are you fine tuning people to no effect?

Photo by Abbas Tehrani on Unsplash

I am seeing this pattern in people. You say something and they add a comment. It’s not even a clarification. It’s what I call fine tuning.

Was something added to the conversation? Maybe. One could argue it’s continuing the conversation. Does it add value to the conversation? Maybe. Yes, I know I kind of double stated the question.

A recent conversation came to mind. I bought a house and someone added I paid 20K to much for a house that cost several hundred thousand dollars. Really? It does not matter what I paid, you’d say something like that.

Or you buy a car. You paid a thousand too much for a car that costs tens of thousands. Doesn’t matter what I paid then, does it? You’d fine tune me.

You go on a ten day vacation and you are told you should have gone for twelve days. Whatevs.

You work all weekend on a critical project and the manager asks if you did something that to you is rather innocuous. Just damn.

Funny thing is a lot of people do this but I find myself thinking of one person in particular, who made me aware of this concept with the constant fine tuning.

Now that I’ve recognized this fine tuning I can more purposefully respond. I either add that it’s what I wanted to do so it does not matter or I’ll change the conversation. Or I’ll say that is not something that matters.

If I see that you are just busting my chops, I am kind of good with that.

I’m not drawing some grand conclusion here. I’m writing this to hope someone becomes aware they are doing this or others are doing to them.

I have met someone who does a good job of spinning something I say with a more positive way of looking at what I just said. I am good with that. He has me thinking a bit differently.

Have a great day.

Come back for more perhaps silly observations I have.

God bless.

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That Hankinson
That Hankinson

Written by That Hankinson

Enjoy reading. I know I would enjoy writing! How to get there…..

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