Dealing with someone who says 'maybe' constantly as a power move when I make a statement in a social setting

[sejinlee09]

I noticed this a couple of times when I'm out with a few of my acquiantances. We would be talking about side gigs that are good right now and I'll throw out a suggestion like being a tour guide on Air BnB for USD in a third world country is a very good side gig. And this person will say 'Maybe, maybe' in front of others just to disagree.

Or for example, we talk about what we should do as a group and someone would throw out a suggestion and the same person says 'maybe, maybe. We'll see'. It's way of positioning themselves as the judge for the statements made and an obvious ladder climbing mentality.

How can you respond to little things like this?

 

[trashKENNUT]

How can you respond to little things like this?

This is common among high school to college to university students.

Simple to handle this. Just Don't argue. It's just a default response to everyone because everyone is value ASS-eesing at optimal level at this age, at pretty much every frame and every thing. (Now, it's pretty much global).

Have access to cool place/females that hangout with you/something that they value.

Don't make the mistake of handing out girls phone numbers. Invite the guys out to hangout with you and the females. And if he's cool, then invite him more.

Usually they are not and sometimes they will spam your text. Just life I guess.

z@c+

 

[ulrich]

Ignore him.

Sounds like a guy who is in “too cool for school” category and is not providing value so if you you are unaffected by his indifference he becomes invisible.
He is playing a gambit.

 

[Teevster]

"It seems you lack opinions about the world - that's cool man, but you are missing out"

Best,
Teevster

 

[Kaida]

I noticed this a couple of times when I'm out with a few of my acquiantances. We would be talking about side gigs that are good right now and I'll throw out a suggestion like being a tour guide on Air BnB for USD in a third world country is a very good side gig. And this person will say 'Maybe, maybe' in front of others just to disagree.

Or for example, we talk about what we should do as a group and someone would throw out a suggestion and the same person says 'maybe, maybe. We'll see'. It's way of positioning themselves as the judge for the statements made and an obvious ladder climbing mentality.

How can you respond to little things like this?

Yeah people do little things like this all the time in my high school, including give commands in a forceful way for small things you’re already going to do like “Throw that trash away!”.

it’s annoyingly common. Best thing to do is honestly just ignore or just do something I call “actively ignore”.

This is when you talk over them as if you didnt hear what they said and are just continuing your point - preferably cutting them off, but you can continue after they finish too. If its a 1 on 1 wait until they finish, and if its a group situation cut them off without looking at them.
Ex
You: We should eat out
Him : Mayb-
You: What do yall think? Applebees?

Keep in mind to keep it as natural sounding as possible

 

[Regal Tiger]

I like Teev's response if it's something that's ongoing as well as Kaider's above about just talking over them (since it's something that keeps happening, if it were a one time thing or just every once in a great while ignoring is always good).

I had a coworker (who everyone disliked and eventually got fired for just being a general douche) who would do what Kaider mentioned above: tell you to do something that you were already in the process of doing. Most of the time I'd just ignore it, but one time it annoyed me since it was in front of our boss.

So I just went a little meta and called it out, seemed to work well. Here's the scenario:

Me: I'm about to start the weedeating, is there anything else you need boss?
Boss: no, sounds good
Douche: yeah go ahead and weedeat but I don't want you taking forever to do it
Me: Yeah, no worries. Hey real quick though, is there anything else you want to say in front of the boss to sound cool or are you done wasting everyone's time?
...
Me: didn't think so, I'm gonna go weedeat now



If you know what your friend(?) is doing is just a power move you can call it out by going meta, like my example above of a slightly different situation. But you could give them the benefit of the doubt first by just asking them about it (some people pick up habits that they're not aware of and just follow them blindly). If you can tell that they do it to everyone and gets on everyone's nerves then call it out in front of everyone, or you can allow them to save face by pulling them to the side for it. Your call.