
Never Heard of It - Ashuu
http://alistapart.com/column/never-heard-of-it
======
ritchiea
Thank you so much for posting this. I developed a bad habit of avoiding
admissions of ignorance at the very start of my career because I felt shunned
or slighted when I was honest about my lack of knowledge. It was terrible. For
a long time I felt trapped, I felt like I had to lie or mislead to be taken
seriously and that very lying hurt my ability to learn more.

If someone at the start of their career asked me about having this problem now
I'd instinctively tell her or him that it's not worth working with the people
you find yourself being dishonest around. But how do you find the good people?
It's hard, and it's when you are least experienced that you will have the most
trouble differentiating between the knowledgeable and the hangers on.

This is a huge huge problem in our industry. And I think a lot of it stems
from the fact that 3 years ago when I knew nothing but the HTML & CSS I picked
up on hobby projects and a couple college CS classes, what was I? I was a web
developer. What am I now after 3 years of real projects, working with devs
that know far more than I do, reading a ton, going to talks, and taking on
increasingly more responsibility on projects? I'm still a web developer. In
that context it's very challenging to be the person who is new to the field
because everyone wants you to be the expert, and can be mean when you're not.

~~~
woah
Oh man, I'm glad you've stopped. People must have been able to see that from a
mile away.

------
jrochkind1
“Sass’s new placeholder syntax is pretty great, isn’t it?”

You say: "I haven't taken a look at it yet, what do you like about it?"

They say whatever.

You say: "Wow, that does sound pretty great, I'll definitely have to check
that out." And then you do so, sure.

Human psychology is such that they often will actually react by liking you
BETTER than if you had (presumably truthfully) said "Oh, yeah, it's great."
Because you demonstrated that you valued their opinion, listened to their
opinion, and then told them that they were right on!

~~~
idProQuo
It's a bit more of embarrassing if you're the Sass consultant and the client
is the one bringing it up. At least, that was what I gathered from the
article.

~~~
k__
Yes, but it's just an ego thing.

~~~
spiffytech
It's more than just ego - if your value proposition to the client is that you
know more about Sass than they do, admitting ignorance undermines your value
to them and your credibility as an expert. This, in turn, could (at least in
your mind) threaten your contract, and your chances at securing future
contracts.

~~~
memracom
A SASS consultant? Is there such a thing?

I don't think there is any shame in learning from clients. In effect, whenever
you talk to a client about requirements, you are asking them to teach you
about their problems domain. As a consultant who develops things whether web
sites or software, your value to the client is not in the completeness of your
prior knowledge, but in your ability to execute upon their requirements and
deliver the solutions that they need. So if they can teach you the occasional
technical trick, this is just fine.

------
bowlofpetunias
Interesting that this comes from a woman. In my experience this is mostly men
that systematically cover up not knowing or not understanding.

I always know that when I have to talk to a group of women I have to be well
prepared. Men are generally easy to bullshit, they won't ask questions like
"could you explain exactly how that works?", at least not in front of their
peers. Women seem to have less of an issue with it, especially when there are
no men around to give them condescending looks.

~~~
timje1
Women suffer from imposter syndrome[0] more than men and seem somewhat less
confident about their abilities in a variety of metrics (e.g. they contribute
to wikipedia articles related to their area of expertise less than equally
qualified men. They feel less confident speaking at conferences. The ADA
initiative has a good piece on this [1] )

\---note: this is not anything to do with actual capabilities!---

Regardless of what causes this difference (cultural, social, biological,
monkey-based evo psych, whatever) I would bet it is a factor here. So I posit
that men _may_ cover up their lack of knowledge, but it may also be a
_confidence_ issue - perhaps the men actually feel like they know already, and
the women are less sure of their own knowledge.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome)

[1] [http://adainitiative.org/2013/08/is-impostor-syndrome-
keepin...](http://adainitiative.org/2013/08/is-impostor-syndrome-keeping-
women-out-of-open-technology-and-culture/)

~~~
yetanotherphd
Yes, it's great to speculate on these things, as long as we rigorously
discourage people from speculating that men are better than women in any
dimension. We can have an academic discussion on the differences between men
and women while avoiding sexism.

~~~
vdaniuk
Should we rigorously discourage people from speculating that women are better
than men in any dimension?

------
wmeredith
The smartest person in the room is usually the one asking a lot of questions
about the stuff they don't know. Particularly if there's an expert there to
answer them in a manner that provides more insight than your typical Google
search.

------
kaffeinecoma
I've always appreciated interviewing job candidates that would respond with an
honest "Hmm, I actually don't know" rather than trying to BS their way through
a question for which they obviously didn't know the answer. Expecting even
great developers to know 100% of everything is unrealistic.

~~~
fat0wl
Oh mannnnnnnn do I wish I met some more interviewers like you. I have mounds
of experience with programming but not all of it is web-focused, and when I
went through interviews I was constantly shut down because I didn't know a
particular js or testing framework (RoR world, where there isn't a prescribed
consistent stack that is generally used on all projects).

Finally I got to a corporation who looked at my track record & audio master's
degree, said "damn you must be smart!" & hired me on the spot. I had finally
gotten an offer for an RoR position as well at almost the same time but I
can't tell you how many interviewers flat-out turned me down for not knowing
some random piece of pseudo-hobbyist tech.

Anyone applying for a job in one of those ecosystems should spend ~3 hrs a day
Googling these things & coming up with some talking points. I wish I could
recommend just saying "I don't know" but I can tell you most interviewers
don't get it. Better to just say a couple cursory things you read on the
library's wiki page, then "I haven't used it in production though..."

~~~
ctide
'I don't know' is never a good answer. If someone asks you about some specific
javascript testing framework, for example, and your answer is simply 'I don't
know', that implies that you know nothing about javascript testing. Replying
'I don't know about X, but I've worked with Y in the past, and heard about Z'
is an answer that shows that you are familiar with the problem space, which is
vastly more important than knowing some random piece of tech.

~~~
fat0wl
heh I agree with you conceptually but I've been in talks that are like (given
X is a concept/library/framework) "I don't know about X, but --" "Oh you don't
know about X? We don't want to know or understand anything about people who
don't BELIEVE in X. You're disGUSting!"

But I never said I personally don't agree with the technique... so the
response I go with is "Well, I agree with the philosophy there but my previous
employers didn't budget any time for X." which they seem to absolutely hate
anyway.

The reason I ultimately went corporate was because the hiring practices were
more algorithm/concept-based (web services, AJAX practices, software design
principles) rather than library or language-specific. I was hired into a Java
team without even knowing Java. About 3 months later I found I could program
on any part of their stack if they really needed me to.

Hiring practices that are not based on assessing a candidate's capabilities
strike me as egotistical and pessimistic. I'm going to keep reading
theoretical Comp Sci texts to see if I can get to the next phase of my career
rather than joining the learn-every-framwork-under-the-sun-OR-ELSE movement.

~~~
mattmanser
Look at it another way.

Would you have wanted to work with people who are so short-sighted anyway?

As anyone who conceptually can't understand that it doesn't matter that JS
testing framework 1 is going to be similar to testing frameworks 2, 3 & 4 is
probably going to be populated by a whole load of crap, probably mono-
linguistic, developers.

A lot of development jobs & the developers that work in those jobs, suck. And
they're going to be pretty painful if you care about code.

I was at a talk last night and the speaker was talking about how to help new
developers when they first start in a company and he started going on about
giving the new developers access to the live servers & FTPing the changes to
the live server, etc., etc.

All I could think is 'right, that company is now a never work for, avoid
people who have worked there'.

No automated deployment? Having to give new developers access to live servers?
In 2013? Pathetic.

------
mapgrep
There's a Japanese saying I came across recently while reading the book Tokyo
Vice:

"To ask a question is a shame for a moment. Not to ask the question is a shame
for your whole life."

(The author of the book, a newspaper reporter covering crime and the Yakuza,
gets very far in his career by asking "dumb" questions.)

------
bluetidepro
This post hit the nail on the head for me. This ( _the first few sections
mainly_ ) is something I have been doing for years and am trying to get better
with. It makes me happy to know I'm not the only one that does this. Great
article, Lyza!

------
kordless
I appreciate the post addresses the fears in admitting you don't know about
something, but I also think it's fair to attack the validity of the question
itself assuming the original question was asked in a similar way to how it was
presented.

> Sass’s new placeholder syntax is pretty great, isn’t it?

This question could be considered a leading question, especially when
considering the context: I don't write CSS at all, and never have heard of it
- why are you assuming I know what it is? I regularly write CSS, but don't
know how to use Saas - why are you assuming I use Saas and find it useful?
I've used Saas in the past, find it confusing, and have decided to stick to
CSS - why are you assuming a tool you use is a tool I should also want use and
like?

Just ask the question in a way that doesn't make assumptions!

~~~
cenhyperion
> One of their developers was giving an informal presentation about their
> progress

The example wasn't an interview question. It seems like a perfectly normal
question you'd ask a fellow developer in the course of working on a project.

Every time you ask a question you're making assumptions about prior
experience.

------
etler
I do this sometimes, but no longer because I fear looking ignorant.
Unfortunately, I've realized that most people are really bad at explaining
things. It's not their fault, teaching is hard, but I often find asking
questions to the wrong person can lead to a hard to escape, but well meaning
tech rant that I can't remotely discern because it relies too much on domain
knowledge. I often find that it's easier to just look it up on my own.

~~~
andrewflnr
I do this a lot in math class, actually. The professor goes "so X leads to Y,
right? RIGHT?" and I just nod and say yes or otherwise he won't get on to the
next thing. I'll understand it better when I can read it in the book.

------
bjornsteffanson
A lot of it has to do with the culture of shame that causes us to posture in
the first place. We bullshit because we're afraid of what the other person's
reaction will be like.

I feel fortunate to work for a company that has a zero-tolerance policy for
shaming others and their code knowledge. In fact, it's much more common to
hear something like "I'm not familiar with that - could you teach me?"
instead. Weekly, we show off new tools or techniques we've discovered so the
chances of being left in the dark are slimmer. It leads to a lot more open
discussions and a better overall base of knowledge across the entire company.

~~~
BadCookie
Something that has been bothering me lately about my company is that the
technical founders will make snide comments about old parts of our code base,
parts usually written by people who aren't at the company any longer. I'm
generally pretty well respected so I don't get these sorts of comments about
my code (at least to my face!), but it still makes me less comfortable working
here.

The other day, one of the founders was joking about how bad some CSS was on a
particular page, not realizing that I was the one who wrote the CSS. I just
laughed. I wrote that CSS 4 years ago when I had no idea what I was doing, and
it took 4 years for anyone to notice a problem with it. It doesn't matter how
smart you are. It takes time to develop skills and good practices, and shaming
other people is really counterproductive.

~~~
babysteps
At least you were doing some form of code review.

Generally when doing web work our team is ultimately pushed for time. The
solution normally complies with the request, but most of us are embarrassed
with the code, and hope for a time to sort it out later, only to never get
that time. There's always a flaw.

~~~
BadCookie
Well, I wouldn't call demeaning comments about code (that we aren't actively
looking at, written by someone who isn't present) a "code review." Usually
words like "shitty" and "really bad" are thrown out without any specifics
given. And the work environment is not so different at our company. The CEO
wants it done yesterday, and he cares more about it working than what the
technical founders think of your coding style ...

I actually quite like my job, so I shouldn't be complaining so much. I just
wish that some of the people I work with weren't so judgmental.

------
timje1
When you're new to the game, it's quite easy to admit gaps in your knowledge
and pick up on what you're missing.

One reason why this remains a persistent problem, I've found, is that the more
experience you gain, the more likely people are to treat you like a guru - or
worse, _the guru_ \- which makes it more difficult to say "Sorry, I've not
heard of that... could you fill me in?".

~~~
mkesper
Pfft. If you're 'the guru', you're even more free to admit you don't know
something.

BRIAN:

I'm not the Messiah! Will you please listen? I am not the Messiah, do you
understand?! Honestly!

GIRL:

Only the true Messiah denies His divinity.

[http://web.archive.org/web/20071002103358/http://www.mwscomp...](http://web.archive.org/web/20071002103358/http://www.mwscomp.com/movies/brian/brian-18.htm)

------
chiph
My first job out of college I worked for a man that had left the world of
mainframes for the then-new world of the IBM PC. His reasoning was: "It's such
a small box. It shouldn't be hard to know everything there is to know about
it."

2 years later, he realized just how wrong he was.

With the truly stupendous number of potential things to know about today, not
knowing something is the far-more-common case. And there shouldn't be any
shame in not having heard about something.

~~~
walshemj
Actually the original IBM PC (5150/5160) _was_ simple when compared to a big
iron systems of the day

I recall we had the full IBM hardware and software guides for our IBM PC and
they where a couple of small A5 binders.

------
hobbes300
One of the best pieces of wisdom I have received that relates to the IT
industry hugely is "no matter who you are talking to and how experienced they
are, there is always something that you know that they don't and vice versa".

------
JohnBooty
Great article. I'm a big fan of admitting I'm not familiar with something!

It's scary - but it's so much better than _actually_ knowing something and
having your expertise dismissed because you've already blown your credibility.

Looked at another way, I suppose my readiness to admit I don't know things is
slightly egotistical: when I say I know something well, I want motherf----- to
believe me.

Being up front about what you don't know well is kind of the price you have to
pay... well, that and actually knowing stuff in other areas.

------
jiggy2011
Admitting ignorance often may be a good pragmatic practice when you are trying
to get something specific done where that knowledge is important but it's not
necessarily great for your career.

I have met numerous people in my career who seem incredibly impressive when
you first meet them, like they are so smart and know something about
everything but if you try and pin them down on specifics you realize that they
are mostly full of hot air and are just parroting something they heard
somebody else say. These people can often get promoted fast, assuming that
they can do it convincingly because for every person that called their bluff
they left that sparkling first impression on 50 more.

I wonder if it's that they are so good at BS that they have convinced the
organization that they really are an expert or whether the organization
actually values people who can convincingly BS for more senior positions? If
you are in a position negotiating a large contract for example, it's
definitely a good thing to look like you know what you are talking about.

In many , many cases you can get away with this BS because the issue itself
might not actually be very important. If you can say "uh huh yes, I am
familiar with framework X" and the conversation moves on to something else
because it was never really about framework X in the first place, admitting
ignorance may not be the best strategy.

~~~
memracom
I had a guy like that working for me after I was given a team of 16 network
designers and engineers to manage. The guy in question was leading a team of 4
network engineers. A couple of the engineers came into my office and
complained that this team leader did not actually appear to know anything
about network design. I contacted HR and asked for his hiring resume and also
wanted to know who interviewed him. Four of the five interviewers were still
with the company and all 5 were non-technical people. Alarm bells. I read the
resume and it was all kind of vague. I brought him into my office and gave him
a kind of technical interview. He was evasive and vague about things. If he
had been a jobseeker I would have sent him a polite letter saying no. But he
had been on payroll for over a year, was widely considered to be a technical
rockstar, and made 20k pounds more than me. One thing that this guy claimed
was a CCIE. I checked with Cisco and they had no record of the guy.

I went to my boss, and laid out what I knew. He mentioned that the guy had
already been to him complaining about me. I pointed out that the guy had
ordered the new style company business cards and put CCIE on it. This means
that he was defrauding our customers when he handed out the cards. I explained
that every CCIE has a CCIE number and that if he gave us a number, we could
check it with Cisco. My boss said that because it was now a sensitive HR
situation he wanted to handle it. He advised me to go out for a long lunch
that day.

When I got back, the guy's desk had been cleared which was very unusual
because in the UK people normally work out their notice period, even if they
take a job with a competitor or are laid off. My boss called me in at the end
of the day, and thanked me for my investigation and then said that he managed
to convince HR to raise my salary by 20k pounds.

Working in large corporate environments in more than one country, I have seen
this kind of thing again and again. One particular case was the CEO in New
York of a multinational technical company that I had joined. He only lasted
two years though because the company was spending too fast.

Now I am always suspicious of people who are considered rockstars or geniuses.
If they were really so smart then maybe they would apply that intelligence to
sweeping stuff under the rug and pulling the wool over management's eyes, like
a certain operations manager at a multinational Internet SaaS company that I
once worked at. Technically he was pure incompetence but he managed to hide it
for several years by staying online 24x7 and hacking his way around issues in
secret until he literally went nuts and collapsed due to lack of sleep and
24x7 stress.

------
lewispollard
Being a part of a company like a tech startup is an exercise in knowledge
sharing. I know I learned this lesson when I did an internship. For the first
3 months imposter syndrome hit me hard and I wanted desperately to prove
myself as a good developer, not to admit any spotty parts of my knowledge for
fear of looking stupid. And then, like the article states, quickly googling it
in my own time. It started seeping into my work - when I hit a problem I
couldn't solve, I'd spend days of time googling and trying things through
trial and error when I had the best resource all around me: the other
developers who'd seen this stuff 100 times before.

My manager at the time noticed this behaviour after a while and basically told
me that the whole point of the internship is to learn, and no one would be
surprised or disappointed if I didn't know some minutae about the field I was
working in. In fact, most people enjoy sharing their knowledge, it makes them
feel smart and useful.

This doesn't just apply on an internship - you might have been hired into a
company as a respected, talented programmer, but the situation is still the
same - you're there to share your knowledge with others, and be shared with in
return, and use that cumulative knowledge to build a product.

Once you've 'looked stupid' once by asking a question, you'll quickly realise
it's not so painful after all - and it saves the company a lot of time if you
go 'actually, I've not heard of that', and it takes your colleague 5 minutes
to explain, than having to Google for info and decipher Wikipedia articles and
arcane documentation every time.

------
alabut
Good post. It's a developer-specific flavor of Imposter Syndrome that I've
struggled with too. Must learn all the frameworks! Now! And my designer side
wants to master ever style I see on Dribbble until Photoshop stands up and
starts clapping.

A book that helped me overcome it is called Mindset, written by the psychology
researcher Carol Dweck. I can't recommend it highly enough. Apparently the
problem gets _worse_ as you gain skills, not better, if you don't consciously
take steps to counter it.

I was just chatting with a friend this weekend that I also recommended the
book to because he identified Imposter Syndrone as his major obstacle in life,
even though he's highly accomplished and his blog is constantly on HN. Talking
to him made me realize that it not only affects more people than I realize but
that it probably also affects generalists more than specialists, since being
T-shaped means by definition that you can only pick a few areas to go deep.

~~~
Raphmedia
Good old Impostor Syndrome.

Sometimes, I feel as if I have no idea what I am doing. I mean, I only know
Photoshop, Illustrator, HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP. I can only design
websites, program them and launch them. I am such a fraud. I can't even use
.NET or Ruby! How can I call myself a web developer? And I keep using google
to find answers or keywords I forget! If I wasn't such a fraud, I could write
code on paper, and it would be perfect!

------
Nursie
I think this is a measure of confidence and maturity.

If you are confident enough, mature enough in yourself and work in an
atmosphere that's mature enough not to criticise for it, saying "nope, that's
new to me, is it something I should learn/look up?" is a good thing.

------
was_hellbanned
This reminds me of an issue I had with a coworker. Personally, I'm reluctant
to answer questions about the behaviors of a codebase I work on (e.g. "what
kinds of input can you give in field X of dialog Y?") without reviewing the
code first. There are far too many combinatorial logical possibilities, not to
mention the fact that a mature codebase becomes so fractured and diverse that
nobody really knows what's going on at any given code location.

Meanwhile, my coworker would confidently answer with whatever he thought was
correct. He would often be close, but he would also, alarmingly often, be
completely wrong, to the point of describing behavior that had nothing to do
with the product in question.

As luck would have it, none of his lies/misrepresentations ever mattered.
Whatever prompted the questions ended up being unimportant, or the support
issue was resolved through other means. He ended up promoted to manager, at
which point the department imploded on itself under his watch. To my
knowledge, he never had any idea how incorrect he was, since he was simply
wildly confident in himself.

------
bchjam
Owning up to posturing

I think it's good advice to be aware of doing this but you can go too far in
compensating. Don't derail other people's speech by riddling them with
questions or admissions, but if they ask you if you know be honest.

In other terms, nodding to a speaker can mean "please continue", I think it
rarely actually means "I understand completely".

------
JoeAltmaier
I say it all the time; it gives folks the chance to show off, educate all of
us. Its a conversational ploy that's useful even when you DO know.

Pointless to argue sex bias; who cares? It happens all the time that we feel
our ignorance is on display. I revel in it, ask questions, find out if the
other guy really knows what they're talking about.

------
csours
Question about phrasing: "This is the first time I've heard of that" sounds
better to me than saying "I've never heard of that before". It feels more like
I'm grateful to the person who has introduced me to the topic rather than
dismissive of this thing they may have just made up.

------
ErikAugust
Great point here:

"I go through periods of self-doubt about my qualifications as a web
developer. I have a sense I’m not alone in this. Our field is by nature a
generalists’ field, where expertise involves synthesis of concepts and
technologies, not complete mastery of a single, static topic. It’s hard to
know how to tell if you’re good at your job."

I'd say, I'd agree fully but you can look at it as an advantageous position,
in my opinion.

The ability to bend a lot of different concepts/technologies that were put
together by experts into something that solves the problem puts you in an
important place.

I'd say show love for the open source community and the people who know
everything about a particular framework or technology, but really it comes
down to asking, "No, not familiar, what are the advantages of this [new thing]
over what we've been doing?"

------
abhiv
I generally enjoy admitting ignorance and asking questions that seem dumb as a
way of educating myself. You do have to be mindful of who you do this with.
The person you're speaking with has to have a certain level of maturity
themselves in order to not consider you stupid for your admission of
ignorance.

In an ideal situation, you're speaking with someone who will allow you to
probe them on the subject with a series of "stupid" (sounding) questions till
you have a good basic understanding of the topic.

Unfortunately, many people are not like that. They will simply think that
you're stupid and move on to the next topic. Sometimes these may be people you
want to make a good impression on, for a variety of reasons, so some diplomacy
is required.

------
fnbaptiste
I can think of at least two employers who gave me the job because of my
honesty when admitting to my ignorance of certain job-related knowledge during
an interview. It's a really great trait for recent graduates, many of whom
will nod along and say, "Oh yeah, I've used such-and-such before." My first
two jobs out of college the boss told me after giving me the gig that a big
part of me getting hired was that I didn't appear to be over-stating about my
abilities and it was clear what they were getting by hiring me. So if
anything, young developers should just remember to be honest and that you
can't be expected to know everything right off the bat. Employers will
appreciate the honesty.

------
Osmium
I think this definitely comes with experience, and therefore confidence. I own
up to not knowing things _all the time_ , but I doubt I would've four or five
years ago. It just becomes easier when you're confident in what it is you _do_
know.

------
thatthatis
There are too many topics to be an expert on everything. I've found that
honesty leads to better conversations and higher trust long-term
relationships.

"That's not really my area of expertise, what do you mean by that?"

"I haven't looked into that much yet"

"I'm sorry, I don't know that word"

"I've been meaning to look into ____, can you give me the 5 second overview"

I can separate the world easily into two types of people: those who will asks
questions if they don't understand, and people I'm unlikely to trust.

------
ilaksh
There is a new significant technology released every week. Sometimes there are
several in one day. When people seem surprised that I haven't heard of their
new favorite tech it makes them seem inexperienced or dumb to me. Actually I
think you can almost take any two random developers and there is a good chance
they are each working on technologies that the other has never heard of. The
thing is new technology comes out as soon as people think of it and type it
in.

------
gprasanth
This is the right attitude to have about learning stuff related to your field.
But, I think it is very important to really know your field very well if you
want to be good at it. It may be really obvious but I had to write it[1].

[1] - [http://serenecode.org/2013/11/proper-education-is-a-
must/](http://serenecode.org/2013/11/proper-education-is-a-must/)

~~~
freehunter
I had a discussion with some coworkers while I was an intern (not all that
many years ago) about IPX (Internetwork Packet Exchange). I had to admit I
didn't know the protocol. There was an immediate and severe negative reaction
from everyone in the room, upset that I didn't know IPX, upset that I never
learned it, upset that I apparently hadn't been paying attention in class the
day that was taught. Problem is, it never _was_ taught, and of all the
protocols I _did_ take the time to learn, I learned the ones I was likely to
run into most often in life. IPX isn't commonly used, and it certainly wasn't
taught at my school.

That's the reason it's hard for some people to admit they don't know: because
no matter what, there's this fear that everyone expects you should know it
already. No matter how obscure. It's really easy to brush it off the first
time something new comes up, or the second or third time. By then, it's
embarrassing to admit you have no idea what they're talking about.

~~~
rrich
I didn't think IPX/SPX was used anymore. I sure wouldn't expect an intern to
know anything about IPX/SPX outside of maybe its existence.

------
vacri
When I was in neurology, my favourite sales rep was the guy who would answer a
question with "I'm not sure. I'll find out and get back to you". He didn't
always get back, but he usually did, and you were better off for it. Much
better than the sales reps who gave you a bit of hot air masking that they
didn't know the answer.

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hotpockets
This is a common cognitive bias, overestimating familiarity with expert
domains. Sometimes called the curse of knowledge, or the terminology illusion
(specific to overestimating familiarity with jargon).

Unfortunately, it happens naturally and automatically, and is thus very
difficult to overcome.

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maaaats
I find myself doing this as well. But often it is with people that just won't
shut up with their technical mambo-jambo of how great something-something is.
Asking questions would just make them talk for even longer, so I shut up, nod
and am on my way as quick as possible.

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mathattack
Great point. Not only is it personally empowering to be open with what you
don't know, there are frequently 4 or 5 other people who are happy when you
ask for clarification.

When I'm on sales calls, I now go out of my way to ask those questions of my
own people.

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mbesto
Here's one thing I've learned about knowledge/implementation of technology:

I've gained a lot of trust from clients for being knowledgeable in the field
of emerging tech. I've earned a lot of money by actually using it to provide
solutions.

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makerops
This post hit a lot of nails right on the head, for me at least (I even played
midfield).

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wil421
Why is the top of your heading _A List Apart_ hidden behind your translucent
navigation bar at the top.

.killer-logo { margin-top:55px;} That might do the trick.

Edit: 42px would be best as your logo is cut off at the top of the letters.

~~~
msutherl
It's a design choice. I get why they did it, but it really bothers my eyes ...
something about _almost_ being able to read something make my visual system go
haywire.

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plus-
I feel terrible because while I can relate perfectly to the author's fears,
I'm finding I envy her ability to write so well.

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Zecc
This is completely off-topic, but Lyza Danger Gardner is a pretty badass name.

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ScotterC
A simple rule I go by: This brain is for processing. Not storing.

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trusche
"Just-in-time googling". That made my day, thank you!

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brianhanly
This is what I was looking for. Perfect way to phrase it.

