The short-reply ratio
Paste the reply. Paste what you concluded from it. See the two next to each other, then choose what to do.
The short version
- Paste the short reply you got, exactly as it arrived. Then type everything you concluded from it. The tool puts the two lengths side by side.
- The size of the feeling is not evidence about the message. A nearly empty message leaves a gap, and the gap gets filled by the fastest reading, which is the most practised one rather than the most likely one.
- One short reply is one data point, not a pattern. You leave with either a wait prompt or a short, low-cost check-in line to copy, whichever you choose.
Reading finely is a real skill. It becomes unreliable on a channel that carries almost no signal, which is what text is. This tool does one small thing: it separates what the message contains from what you added, and shows you the ratio, because seeing that ratio does more than any reassurance.
Before you begin
Have the actual reply in front of you. Two boxes, then a choice. Nothing you type is saved.
Steps
Step 1 of 2
What the message contains, and what you added
One data point, not a pattern
This is one short reply. One short reply is not a pattern, three across a fortnight might be, and a pattern is worth raising; a single instance almost never is. The timing of a reply is usually about the sender's day rather than about you.
So, what now?
Two honest options. Pick the one you can actually do.
Your line
Copy it somewhere it will survive
Worth knowing. This experience is often labelled rejection sensitivity. That phrase is in common use, but it is not a settled or validated construct, and it is applied to several different experiences that may not share a mechanism, so we have described the experience rather than named a condition or a trait. Nothing here rests on a research finding about who has it or why. The practical craft, write the message and your reading in two separate lines, look at the length of each, wait for a second data point, ask cheaply if waiting is unbearable, is widely reported to help, not tested.
Nothing here is saved or sent anywhere. What you type exists only while this page is open.
Written for Thought Club as general guidance, not medical advice. Free to read, print, and share.