[TeMPOraL]

That's a great example you've used here, because number one lesson of winning a knife fight is, run. The best alternative to running away or otherwise avoiding that fight would be indeed to shoot your way out of it.

WRT GP's comment, what they described is communication. It's precise communication. Saying exactly what you mean and nothing more. Not falling to some kind of instinctive save-face pressure and inventing a bullshit reason, that only leaves you worse off (you now either have to defend from your interlocutor's attempts at helping you, or admit that you've lied).

(To use a knife-fighting analogy, it's like learning to thrust without making it easy for your opponent to dodge your attack and cut you up.)