When a message is unclear, read it in the nicest voice possible first. You’ll be right more often than you think.

Flat text has no tone, so your own mood supplies one, and a tired or anxious mood supplies a hostile one. Most messages that read as curt were typed by someone walking between two places with no intention behind the brevity. Assuming the generous reading is not naive, it is just more often correct.

When something lands badly, reread it in the kindest possible voice before you respond. If the two readings genuinely differ, ask. You will save yourself a surprising number of arguments that were never actually happening.