But calling it a "sorting exercise" misses the point. If someone sends a huge PDF, it's a sign they don't trust you to get it from a normal talk. Highlighting their repeated words just gives them what they already said, not what they actually need. You're just organizing their noise instead of asking the single question that would cut through it all. Why reward a bad process by doing extra work to decode it?

That PDF is a goldmine for figuring out their real communication style. I once had a client do the same thing, and it showed they were drowning in ideas but couldn't pick a lane. I printed the whole thing and used a highlighter to mark any goal they mentioned more than twice. Usually, the top three are in there, just buried under ten pages of worry. It turns the problem into a sorting exercise instead of a reading one.

Wait, you just use soap and water? Okay so first, never let paint dry in it, like ever. If I'm using latex, I rinse it super good with warm water until it runs clear. Then I work a little dish soap right into the bristles, rinse again, and spin it dry by flicking my wrist. For oil paint, I use the right brush cleaner from the hardware store, not just thinner. The big thing is storing it in the paper wrapper it came in to keep the shape.

So the drone just wanted a better view?

Yeah, we started adding text labels to all our dashboard icons... makes it way easier to scan reports during meetings.