THINK is a useful acronym:

Is it True?

Is it Helpful?

Is it Inspiring?

Is it Necessary?

Is it Kind?

More thinking can be the solution to bad feelings.

I think a lot of people struggle with the Is it True question because they have a hard time differentiating between emotional truth and what's going on in the world around them or "factual truth" and because of that never get to the next 4 questions. For a lot of people how it feels is the truth and that truth manifests real responses to the outer world. The challenge for any sentient being is knowing how to quickly correlate the inner and outer truths to quickly reach a place of mindfulness. And I don't limit mindfulness to just some esoteric sense of enlightenment and calm vision. I mean in the sense of that gut reaction that tells you that something bad is about to happen and you need to get the hell out of dodge even though everything "looks" ok.

Of course, all of this makes me think about your pandawhale post on how the brain works (http://pandawhale.com/convo/1217/how-your-brain-works) and wishing that we could figure out how to use the 80% we leave in a rest state. Wonder what the human landscape would look like if we could put that thing to full use...

The reason I liked this framework is that it offers a way to evaluate what we say and improve in the future.

I don't need to learn to use my whole brain; I just need to learn how to keep getting better.

Agreed, lest we blurt something silly and become awkward but we can always turn it around by saying "I was just thinking aloud", Haha.

That common humanity can be good for bonding in a relationship, actually.

Are you suggesting that every utterance has to be ALL of these? or just one? Because one time someone told me, "You know, the difference between you and me is that you'd rather be right and I'd rather be nice." And of course I replied, "No the difference is that I'm an engineer and you're in marketing, so it doesn't matter whether you're right... OR nice, actually." :)

Make sure your utterance has at least one of these five things.

Otherwise, it's misspent energy.

So much for improvisational poetry slams.

...but on a serious note...what is necessary? So much of our gibberish is tradition. Is it necessary because it makes us feel like members of the same social circle to say "How are you?" while not expecting or wanting a real response? Or is it useless mouth moving?

Small talk is necessary for networking. http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/Careers/03/03/small.talk/index.html

I like the acronym, but rather than use it when I speak, I think it would be better applied to developing an idea or concept. Speech should be free and unrestricted but used wisely.

I believe it can be used both for vetting an idea, and for making sure all communication is worthwhile.

Our greatest constraint is time. If we can THINK, we can save time and energy.

I believe our brain has somehow or other incorporated in our speech some or one of the THINK. We might not realise it and it also depends how the other party to the conversation receives it. Was our reply or speech, true,helpful,inspiring,necesssary or kind to them?

We might have some natural proclivities but practice can make it even better!

Imagine if the world acted like this

The world would be a better place if the world acted like this, David.

THINK as much as you can. 

THINK whenever you can.