My dad once told me that if you’re talking to someone on the phone, make sure you do not ask them “yes or no questions.” His reason for this was that often the employee wouldn’t hear the question, or would just be lazy, and answer ‘Yes’ even though they didn’t know what they were talking about. I ran into this just now, when I called Motel 6 to get a room in Flagstaff so I could see the Grand Canyon.
Me: Is an internet connection included in the cost of the room, or is that extra?
Lady: yes
Me: So If I get a room, will how much extra do I have to pay for an internet connection?
Lady: Oh, we don’t have internet.
I started to think about how this relates to information theory and how communication over a noisy channel neccessitates some kind of encoding scheme if you want any sort of accuracy. But that’s not really necessary.