Much of human toil comes from miscommunication. Most miscommunication comes from improper attribution of the other's intention. Sometimes, people attribute a negative intention where there was none, and it's that misattributed negative intention that's usually the cause of trouble, not what was said per se. Other times, people don't realize the intent of something said and they answer the words without addressing the meaning, or intent. Checking your interlocutor's intention is critical to avoid misunderstandings. It should be a routine part of error correction in communication, and become a key attribute in future intelligent machine communication.