Note to the world in general.

I am not a mind-reader. I do not know what you are thinking if you won't tell me. On those occasions when it seems that I do know what's going through your brain, chances are that's because I've been paying attention. I do that sometimes.

Because I am not a mind-reader, I often ask questions. I do this, not in some indirect attempt to accuse you of something, but in a direct attempt to learn answers.

Whatever it is that enables most social interactions in our culture to flow smoothly as if everyone were thinking the same thing, I do not have it. I do not share your assumptions. I share few of your pop-cultural referents. Quote from C.S. Lewis or an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I will understand you; quote from the latest hit movie and I will probably figure that what you just said came from your own fevered brain (and I will act accordingly).

Again, I am not a mind-reader. Not knowing what else to do, I tend to take people at their word unless they have shown that their word cannot be trusted. If you say something under the assumption that I will know you don't really mean it because everybody knows it's just the polite thing to say, please do not become angry when I act as if you meant it anyway. I am not trying to be difficult, honest! I'm just not a mind-reader. And I rather get the impression that the beings around me aren't mind-readers either, else they would know this stuff already.