"Don't" Doesn't Point to the "Do"

A sign on the doorway of a large local restaurant reads: "Do not enter here."

OK.  So, what do you do? Does it mean that you enter through the adjacent door or the big French doors at the corner of the building?

"Do not disconnect manually." How does someone remove the portable drive from the USB hub?

"Don't spend a lot of time on marketing proposals for existing clients unless they request one." Hmm. Does that mean I can prepare one if I think I can do it quickly?

We can all remember those childhood moments in the supermarket when our mom would rattle off a barrage of, "Don't touch that one!", "Don't talk to that stranger!", Don't eat that brand of peanuts!" (Fill in your favorite).

Humans are action-oriented creatures. You can tell them what not to do, but know this: If you don't tell them what to do, they will do something.

Are you willing to live with the results of their best guess?

Comments

[Lynn M]

My favorite anti circle-with-red-slash is the simple yellow smiley. Everyone knows what it means. Perhaps what "to do" should be 1. :) and 2. everything else.

Think about it, smiling is very powerful. What else can you do to make people instantly copy/reciprocate?

Sorry, Steve, I know it's off topic....but it might be a good topic to explore! (...and who could have predicted that the future version of the yellow smiley would become a colon parenthese?)