Solo drill · Listening channels
Thread Spotting
Each guest answer has several signals planted in it — a loaded noun, a skipped stretch of time, a contradiction, an image doing the thinking. Read it, speak the follow-up you would ask, then reveal what was planted. You don't need to catch them all; you need to be able to name the exact phrase that justified the one you followed.
A good rep
- You can point to the exact phrase that justified your follow-up. That's the entire standard — one thread, honestly justified, is a full success.
- Your follow-up reuses the guest's own word, not your synonym for it. ("You said it 'stopped being fun'" — not "so you experienced burnout?")
- The reveal shows what we planted. A thread we didn't plant counts too, if you can name its phrase; catching every signal isn't required.
Background: the nine listening channels and the follow-up ladder. Listening mode (in setup) reads the answer aloud with the text hidden — spotting threads by ear is the real conversation skill.