The art of not saying the thing.
The goal isn’t to tell people you’re trustworthy. It’s to tell a story that makes them feel it. The moment you say the thing out loud, you’ve lost the power of it. You’re asserting. You’re pleading. You’re trying to convince them. And the moment you start trying to convince, they start building defences.
But the moment you let them arrive at the conclusion themselves? They own it. It’s not something you’ve argued into them — it’s something they’ve discovered. Which means they’ll defend it like it was their own idea.
This is inference. It’s about what you don’t say, and letting the audience’s brain fill in the gaps.
My origin story never says “I’m a good businessman.” It would be weaker if it did. Instead, it mentions “clients around the world.” One phrase. That’s all it needs. Your brain does the work. If he has clients around the world, he must be doing something right. You didn’t have to tell yourself that. You inferred it.
This connects to autocomplete — the principle that humans fill in blanks automatically, completing patterns they expect to see. If you give someone enough information to complete a pattern, their brain will do the work for you. And because they did the work, they believe it more deeply than if you’d just told them.
Here’s the distinction that matters: “show, don’t tell” is good advice, but it’s vague. What inference does is make it strategic. You’re not showing instead of telling to be literary. You’re showing instead of telling because assertion is weak and inference is strong.
When you describe someone as brave, you’re making a claim that they may argue with. When you show them running toward danger, their brain completes the pattern: brave person runs toward danger, therefore this is a brave person. They’ve convinced themselves.
The same principle works for ethos. You don’t build credibility by saying you’re credible. You build it by letting evidence accumulate. By letting your audience draw the conclusion that you know what you’re talking about.
Tell fewer things directly. Let more be inferred. Your persuasion will multiply.