when lawyers cross examine witnesses, the direct confrontational, accusatory approach rarely yields anything.

the humorous, sideways, occasionally goofy agreeable approach usually gets the witness to cooperate, to let their guard down, to communcate, to sometimes agree with the questioner where the direct approach just causes a complete shut down.

over the years of my experience, i have found that being agreeable, interested in others opinions, even others whose opnioins seem crazy, yields more communication, better results and occasionally some sense from the otehr that i might be a human, just liek them….

confrontation can work too, under certain cricumstances. im just saying, it’s not necessarily the only useful approach…