If someone shows you something and asks, “Isn’t this cool,” they are not looking for you to say “yes.” What they’re looking for is you to escalate.
They don’t just want you to agree that the restaurant looks good; they want you to ask to go. They don’t just want you to agree that a movie clip seems rad; they want you to ask if you’ll show them the movie. They want positive escalation. They want you to want more, either because they want to engage more and want you to do it with them, or because they want to draw you further into their world.
This is true of friends, your children, a partner, even a professional colleague. If someone is showing you something and asking if you feel positively about it, that’s why they seem disappointed if you say “yes.” Because if you said, “not really,” then at least they’d get that you simply aren’t into that thing. But if you agree that it’s neat but don’t ask to engage further, they don’t get what they really wanted: you.
The Opportunity Machine 