Some years ago I wasted an hour attending a lecture about assessment. The speaker illuminated us about the new practices that she had invented. I emailed her afterwards to say that I found her talk very interesting, but pointed out that one of those “new” approaches was being done twenty years ago by a government body I worked for, and the one was being done over forty years ago by me.

She answered, merely stating that she was pleased I found her talk useful.

Eh?

When did “interesting” become a synonym for “useful”? If anything, when the word “interesting” is used by an English person, usually means the opposite. If your line manager tells you that she finds your new approach interesting, and would like to talk to you about it, prepare for a dressing down or, at the very least, a grilling.

Arthur C. Clarke used to respond to people writing to him with bizarre ideas with “There may be something in what you say”. That’s another way of saying “interesting” while simultaneously discouraging any further correspondence.

If you’ve written a book and show a draft to a friend, and that friend says, “It’s an interesting perspective”, it probably means they hate it or don’t understand it.

Don’t be discouraged: you can always tell them that you found their response useful.