The Pledge of Clear and Honest Communication

This document is a pledge for committing to clear and honest communication. It holds no legal power, and is simply a personal affirmation of upholding the principles in this document.

Who's this document for?

Anyone who wishes to be clear and honest in their communication.

Changes to this document

In the spirit of open communication, anyone is free to propose changes to this document. The current pledge is definitely not the best version of the underlying idea, so changes are highly welcome. If you sign the pledge, your commitment is only to the corresponding version of the document, until you also choose to commit to a newer version.

The Pledge

In signing this document, I pledge that I will -- to the best of my ability -- hold myself to the guidelines below in communication.

Commitments for speaking

As a speaker, I commit to the following notions of truth and honesty:

• The information I intend to convey, is what I believe my speech will convey.
• What is implied in what I'm saying is what I honestly believe.

In more detail, as a speaker I:

• engage with the ideas I disagree with using arguments, rather than with ridicule, outrage or personal attacks.
• am willing to be held by my words.
• try to be clear in what I am saying and in what I am not saying.
• use speech that is straightforward and clear in its interpretation. Otherwise stated, I avoid speech that is opaque and/or ambiguous.
• use, whenever possible, commonplace definitions of words. When substantially deviating from the commonplace definition of a word, I make it absolutely clear that I am.
• try to offer clear, comprehensible definitions of words and concepts that I introduced.
• make it clear where I'm certain and where I'm uncertain. Preferably, I express my confidence numerically -- otherwise, I use phrases such as "I think", "I am confident", "I am sure" to qualitatively indicate levels of confidence.
• am willing to offer evidence in favor of a claim I'm putting forward and also admit evidence against that claim.
• attempt to convey information that is relevant and not convey information that is irrelevant.
• strive not to omit relevant information, and recognize that purposefully omitting relevant or important information can be a form of deceit.
• do not use speech to deceive, obfuscate, distract or confuse.
• make it clear, if relevant, on what I have changed my mind.
• try to make claims and use definitions that are testable in the real world.
• try to make my claims precise, such as by formulating them in a quantitative fashion.
• do not engage in sophistry, manipulative rhetoric, semantic games or vague, meaningless language.
• attempt to formulate ideas in a way that is logically coherent.
• help the listener follow these guidelines.

Commitments for listening

As a listener, I commit to the following notions of truth and honesty:

• The interpretation of speech that I assume the speaker conveyed is what I believe the speaker intended to convey.

In more detail, as a listener I:

• do my best to actively listen.
• do my best to understand what the speaker meant to convey. I avoid being indifferent or obtuse.
• am willing to have my mind changed.
• ask clarifying questions, when I'm uncertain about what someone intended to say.
• do not put words in peoples mouths, take speech out of its relevant context, or otherwise straw-man.
• try to interpret someone's speech within the relevant context, using definitions the speaker offered themselves. If the speaker was unable to offer a definition, I use definitions I believe the speaker would use, not a definition that would suit my personal preferences or goals.
• applaud it when someone has a thought-out change of heart.
• help the speaker follow these guidelines.

General guidelines I will commit to

Apart from the particular guidelines written above, I will also commit to these more general guidelines:

• I try to elevate the quality of the conversation, and attempt to make the conversation as valuable for all participants as possible.
• I make it absolutely clear whenever I (temporarily) stopped following these guidelines. If I did not do so at the time, I do make it clear as soon as possible.
• I follow these guidelines, even if someone else might not or does not follow them.
• I allow myself and others to ignore these guidelines when the purpose of the conversation is not to share truths (such as when making jokes).