@Alice What timing!

We're trying to implement more Agile processes at work and just finished the training module that emphasized how much we need everybody to participate in the estimation process no matter how little you know about it.

"Okay, since I know nothing at all about the problem domain I'm going to estimate it takes me 2 weeks just to study it and a month to implement anything at all. No, I don't believe that's accurate but I don't have any relevant info."

@Alice I like - I have the power to hold no opinion

@Alice Also, normalize thinking it and then not commenting when not asked.

@Alice I'm sorry, I can't. This is the Internet.

@Alice

Please, yes. Can we send this memo twice to the men? Asking for a friend.

@Alice Normalize not replying when you don't have anything of value to add.

Oh.

@Alice

https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/1/let-me-interrupt-your-expertise-with-my-confidence-jason-adam-katzenstein.jpg

@Alice this also works great when you're uninterested in the topic or are just introverted!

@Alice
I would but...

@Alice
I don't know comment enough to able to be topic.

@Alice and effectively not having say something syndrome

@Alice 1000%. I think this would solve most of the worst aspects of social media.

@Alice Ahh... But I'm an internet EXPERT. I have my Dubble PHD in Baloney earned at the Prestigious University of Social Media. I know everything about everything and can advise on everything. Hmm... Still got an F on Pythonin school though :p

@Alice I've had people get angry with me for saying that. I think they see it as a kind of cop out or dismissiveness.

@Alice

There is a stoic quote on the Internet that is popular. It is from one of the ancient Stoics.

Paraphrasing:

"You don't HAVE TO have an opinion on everything".

@Alice You can't use it too often at work, or you get "so what are we paying you for then?"

@Alice

I don't know why, but new IT people have to have this pounded into their skulls.

I know a lot of things, some of them even useful, but no one knows it all.

I teach them, "I'm not sure, but I can look into it and get you an answer."

They usually learn the hard way, like after they fire off some imagined knowledge, someone listens, then digitally drives off a cliff and its the sources fault.

#SysAdminLife

@Alice Actually, diamonds are the same as lanterns.

@Alice

I have this bad habit of rambling and over-explaining myself. But I've begun to stop myself and use almost that exact phrase.
But yuo're right, more people need to admit they simply don't know.

@Alice renormalize it.

@Alice
My variation is "I don't know enough about this to have an intelligent opinion." (I almost certainly have SOME kind of opinion.)

Either way, it's good to follow with "I'm curious what X thinks," where X is an intelligent and somewhat quiet person in the room.

@Alice
Actually, . . .

@Alice

I say this all the time though :them_think:

@Alice i wish to comment about your comment, but I have nothing to add, nevertheless it’s your comment and I respect that.

@Alice I don’t know enough about the topic to be able to comment.

@Alice also normalize saying "no" while we do that

@Alice
With an extra boost to all mensplainer.
Life would be much easier if people would be better in knowing about their shortcomings and flaws instead of permanently pretending they know everything best and cost my time to sort idiots from normal humans.

@Alice Yes please.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

@Alice but I am semi-all-knowing, like half infinite. Also, for $19.95 per month, I can send you my information on how to live forever. It comes with my free booklet on how not to lose money to fools. There is a full refund guarantee if you do die and fill out the documentation of how you faithfully followed the method daily prior to death. Just a brief form, it has never been needed.

@Alice Well this is awkward

@Alice

Mostly people say this and actually mean "I know a lot and could say a lot, and have now leveled up to understand that there is no percentage in doing so."

@Alice literally me

@Alice More economically expressed as "Buggered if I know" or #biik 🙂

@Alice but.. I don't know enough about the topic :(

@Alice this would eradicate mansplaining 🤣

@Alice It's ok if you have to internalize it as "if I say something I am going to look really stupid/foolish."

@Alice I was surprised that I actually had to teach that to some tutors for my lectures (who would occasionally also hold the lectures). Some of them would just make shit up when they didn't know the answer.

@Alice

There's a great scene in the HBO Chernobyl series where Valery Legasov is challenged, "Please, tell me how an RBMK reactor core explodes."

Legasov replies, "I'm not prepared to explain it at this time."

In the moment, it pushes back on the "tell me right now", yet it implies that given time, he would have an explanation. Later we learn there's more implied in that answer than just not having it ready at hand.

@Alice @btp

@Alice I often say "I admit ignorance" to stop myself from spewing unsupported wild speculation.

@Alice I say this all the time and people get frustrated telling me they are trying to make conversation! 😅 If I’m not knowledgable about it I won’t engage in blind debate… need to improve my small talk

@Alice My colleagues used to get frustrated with me whenever I'd tell them something like this. So I made sure to point out future instances whenever someone *should* have practiced this advice.

Unqualified dipshits with strong opinions ruin virtually everything they touch.

@Alice

"I know more about the topic than I wanted to."

@Alice I like to also go with "I haven't used <x> enough to have a valid opinion."

@Alice Then who will the reporters interview?

@Alice

My favorite response to “What do you think about [x]?” is “I don’t.”

@Alice This started out as a very sensible request/command but I am loving the replies 😂

@Alice People always get annoyed when they think they have me on some obscure details and I just shrug like "I don't know this topic to that depth."

They worked so hard and now they don't get to win.

Dirty secret is that sometimes I do this when I do know, too, because they're annoying af.

@Alice
DIFFICULTY:
MODERATE

+2 Difficulty; neurospicy #🌶️🧠

DIFFICULTY (@toolbear@):
VERY CHALLENGING

😅

@Alice Good luck with that =/

@Alice I miss when not knowing something was a challenge of discovery.

@Alice ... and its sibling, "I don't know enough about the topic to be able to meaningfully contribute to your meeting."

@Alice As someone doing research, I agree with this sentiment on a deep level

@Alice
But what would we DO on the internet?? 🤯

@Alice yes.

@Alice fuck yeah!

@Alice that line if it took off would break the Internet, and certainly Mastodon

@Alice imagine the silence.

@Alice yeah, 100%. Anyone who always has an answer makes me very suspicious.

@Alice counterpoint

@Alice 🙌🏻🙌🏻

@Alice
Okay, Alice, your suggestion is CLEARLY un-American, so you force me to ask:
Are you, or have you ever been, a member of the communist party??
😆😆

@Alice when I took Logic 101 I remember this was called "The Shutup Principle." When I search for it, I find nothing.

@Alice a sentence that just won't fly with relatives when they need computer service 😅

@Alice But my employer insists that I am the best fit for the project and sends me onsite to the customer anyways. (Because it was sold already and is an important strategic project bla bla)

@Alice

We don't know therefore [x] seems to be a popular choice instead.

@Alice
But but but...

@Alice They how are you? Or how was your day?
Me: I don’t know enough about the topic to be able to comment.

@Alice this is a great line, I use this sometimes but not enough for all kinds of questions. By the way this answer is almost always correct if somebody asks you about a political situation outside of your country.

@Alice

but, but . . . I have to talk a lot to find out all that I don't know

@Alice also me writing a docblock for a new function I coded

@Alice And thus my career as a mime began...

@Alice

Oh yes, please! I just said about a Austrian millionaire who founded a tax-the-rich initiative how I like that she says this a lot. Love it. Should go without saying.

@Alice A friend of mine often said, “blessed is the man who has nothing to say, and cannot be convinced to say it.”

@Alice I think saying it is already normalized. Accepting to hear it, is an entire different story!

@Alice
80s Techies: *Gasp*
@aronow

@Alice "I'm an educated man, but I'm afraid I can't speak intelligently about the travel habits of William Santiago."

@Alice based

@Alice I say this constantly, especially to aggressive “conservatives”.

@Alice Irony, and people making the obvious joke 😄

@Alice
Well that's one way to eliminate half the Internet