How We Say Yes
Discover the hidden mechanics behind everyday agreement, from conversational backchannels to the social power of affirmation. Learn to decode what people really mean when they agree, avoid false commitments, and use agreement to build stronger relationships.
Like Duolingo, but for How We Say Yes. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
21 levels across 4 sections, about 42 minutes end to end, roughly 8 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Listening and Keeping the Flow, Decoding Subtext and Hidden Resistance, Navigating Real-World Agreements, and The Social Architecture of Agreement. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in How We Say Yes
- A short 'yeah' acts as a signal that you hear and understand without grabbing the floor
- Saying 'yeah' briefly lets the speaker know they should continue speaking uninterrupted
- Adding your own thoughts immediately after 'yeah' shifts the speaking turn to you
- Saying 'yeah' right over someone's ongoing words sounds hurried or impatient
- Placing 'yeah' during natural pauses or ends of clauses signals smooth comprehension
- Speakers naturally leave tiny pauses for listeners to confirm they are following along with 'yeah'
- Repeating 'yeah' in an unvarying, flat tone makes you sound robotic or disengaged
- Inflecting 'yeah' with a rising tone communicates curiosity and prompts the speaker to expand
- Changing the melody and pitch of 'yeah' proves you are actively tracking the emotion of the story
- Listeners expect regular affirmations like 'yeah' at key moments in a story
- Leaving a pause empty by not saying 'yeah' signals hesitation or doubt without overt conflict
- Withholding 'yeah' allows the speaker to realize something feels off without being spoken over
- A sudden absence of 'yeah' breaks the expected conversational rhythm
- When 'yeah' abruptly disappears, speakers instinctively brake to check if they were understood or if they caused offense
- Cutting off 'yeah' prompts speakers to elaborate, soften, or re-evaluate their last statement
- 'Yes' introduces emotional distance and professional hierarchy into a conversation
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives How We Say Yes the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
When you give someone a brief 'yeah' while they share a story, what message does it send?
Get it right to open this lesson and 20 more in the app.
Where How We Say Yes takes you
- 1
Listening and Keeping the Flow
- Active Backchanneling
- Choosing Between Yes and Yeah
- 2
Decoding Subtext and Hidden Resistance
- Decoding Reluctance and Hesitant Agreement
- Navigating Compound Markers Like Yeah-No
- 3
Navigating Real-World Agreements
- Generative Agreement in Collaboration
- Crafting Durable Commitments
- 4
The Social Architecture of Agreement
- Alignment, Affiliation, and Social Standing
4 sections · 7 units · 21 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
How We Say Yes is taught in the Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start How We Say Yes today.
Download Tomo, search How We Say Yes, and play your first lesson in under a minute.