You should interrupt others, but just a little bit

I kind of enjoy when I’m reading a book and it seems to contradict what I’ve read in another book. This happened recently while reading “ The JOLT Effect”, followed by “ The Charisma Myth “. Both are great books, but they seem to offer competing advice about interrupting others.

From the JOLT Effect and some thoughts on “cooperative overlapping”:

This term was coined by Georgetown University linguistics professor Deborah Tannen, who explains that “cooperative overlapping occurs when the listener starts talking along with the speaker, not to cut them off but rather to validate or show they’re engaged in what the other person is saying.” Tannen says another way to think about cooperative overlapping is “enthusiastic listenership” or “participatory listenership.” Others have described this technique as communicating with somebody as opposed to at somebody, and that not cooperatively overlapping can have the unintended consequence of making the other person feel alone.

Then, from The Charisma Myth:

Good listeners know never, ever to interrupt-not even if the impulse to do so comes from excitement about something the other person just said. No matter how congratulatory and warm your input, it will always result in their feeling at least a twinge of resentment or frustration at not having…