[Jensson]

> I would retort, never start a sentence with a negative.

"Could you do the easy and obvious thing?" means the same thing, I don't see how it makes a difference.

[ozim]

I believe parent was more into “could you do xyz?” Where xyz is easy and obvious thing, but no one would explicitly phrase it exactly like “could you do easy and obvious thing?”.

This way proposing xyz as a solution is positive not a negative.

[reactordev]

Easy and obvious are subjective.