February 2, 2026
This is just a short note about a simple but underused heuristic for replying to things online. That heuristic is “ask yourself if they could already know”.
That is, when someone has written something online, in that infinitesimal interval before you hit the keyboard to enlighten, correct and/or ridicule them with your scathing reply, pause just long enough to ask yourself this question: could they already be aware of whatever it is I am about to tell them in a smug and self-righteous tone? Is it at all conceivable that they know perfectly well and have still chosen to write what they wrote? Is it possible that they may even know something more, something that I don’t? If so, does that change how you perceive of what they have written? Is it possible that they are not an idiot or ignorant? Is there a chance that the roles are, so to speak, reversed? That would be embarrassing, wouldn’t it?
Luckily, embarrassment is easily avoided. All you have to do is ask yourself if they could already know. AYITCAK for short. You could pronounce it as a clumsy “attack” if you like. I’m not saying you should, but you could. Granted it would be a bit weird if you did, since it’s sort of the opposite. But at the same time, maybe doing so could help stave off some of that excess, pent-up aggression?
“I may not have attacked, but I have certainly AYITCAK’ed.”