>The result was surprising: I appeared smarter. When you say, "Excuse me, I don't understand this," and everyone else is thinking that, too, and especially if i

>The result was surprising: I appeared smarter. When you say, "Excuse me, I don't understand this," and everyone else is thinking that, too, and especially if it turns out to be a bad presentation or a fundamentally incoherent concept . . . well, you look perceptive. This is massively massively important point. It goes beyond looking perceptive, it actually makes you look supremely self confident and powerful within a group. Whether the point is incoherent or not doesn't really matter, when you ask the question, suddenly you're the only one in the room thats not afraid of the conversation, and everyone instantly knows it.