That's exactly the reason why I'm suggesting more directness and less ambiguity, while retaining empathy. You can be direct and unambiguous, and distinguish between the two situations you mentioned.
I would use very different phrasings for something optional for the reader to consider versus something critical that they should either do or provide clear justification for not doing.
> Empathy by definition is personal and contextual, not universal.
Somewhat true, and you can get better results if you know the person you're talking to better (which is one reason why it helps to meet the people you work with in person, at least from time to time). But you can also have a mental model of a collection of potential people, and choose responses most likely to produce positive results. You can still have certain priors for your expectations of the people reading your words, even with minimal information.
I would use very different phrasings for something optional for the reader to consider versus something critical that they should either do or provide clear justification for not doing.
> Empathy by definition is personal and contextual, not universal.
Somewhat true, and you can get better results if you know the person you're talking to better (which is one reason why it helps to meet the people you work with in person, at least from time to time). But you can also have a mental model of a collection of potential people, and choose responses most likely to produce positive results. You can still have certain priors for your expectations of the people reading your words, even with minimal information.