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Yes this is real. We all like to think asking questions doesn't make you look stupid but the reality is, it does. That's why most humans (men especially) have a

Yes this is real. We all like to think asking questions doesn't make you look stupid but the reality is, it does. That's why most humans (men especially) have an inborn fear of asking questions... it's actually an evolved trait. Think about it, you have this fear regardless of what kind of person your mentor is... All these little hang ups that humans have like biases and jealousy exist because they helped us survive natural selection. Ever wonder why evolution hasn't already put in place the behavioral idealisms we strive for? Possibly because that type of behavior didn't actually help us survive. You are a petty person who lacks self control and is too cowardly to ask questions because in certain ways these qualities can actually be good for you. It goes even further then this, because there's a huge possibility that asking too many questions IS actually a good metric for how stupid you are. If evolution evolved in you a fear of asking questions, it may be that this was an evolutionary response to another evolved trait of people accurately judging intelligence by measuring the amount of questions someone asks! Is there any data correlating IQ and amount of questions asked? I would like to know.

playpause 6y ago
> We all like to think asking questions doesn't make you look stupid but the reality is, it does. This is the opposite of my experience. I hear alarm bells when a junior engineer says they understand something without asking many questions. Conversely, those who ask the most questions stick out as engaged and intelligent. Even silly clarifying questions often reassure me that the engineer is diligent and doesn't want to waste time due to silly misunderstandings. That's not something I 'like to think' based on some theory I'm pushing. It's just the pragmatic outcome of years of experience of junior devs fucking things up or wasting time because they didn't make sure they understood something first. Even if you're right that somehow we evolved to find people stupid when they ask questions, I imagine that would play a tiny role compared to the intuitions we develop from actual experience on the job.
- Geminidog 6y ago
  https://www.boredpanda.com/socially-anxious-girl-friendship-classroom/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic https://www.boredpanda.com/socially-anxious-girl-friendship-... The above is an example on how the entire school thought some girl was stupid because she asked too many questions. They were right in a way but also wrong. This is anecdotal evidence, but the fact that an entire school thought this way makes it pseudo statistical as the population of a school is quite large. The quality of the questions you ask matters and yes like all inborn behavior it can be overridden.

playpause 6y ago

> We all like to think asking questions doesn't make you look stupid but the reality is, it does. This is the opposite of my experience. I hear alarm bells when a junior engineer says they understand something without asking many questions. Conversely, those who ask the most questions stick out as engaged and intelligent. Even silly clarifying questions often reassure me that the engineer is diligent and doesn't want to waste time due to silly misunderstandings. That's not something I 'like to think' based on some theory I'm pushing. It's just the pragmatic outcome of years of experience of junior devs fucking things up or wasting time because they didn't make sure they understood something first. Even if you're right that somehow we evolved to find people stupid when they ask questions, I imagine that would play a tiny role compared to the intuitions we develop from actual experience on the job.

Geminidog 6y ago
https://www.boredpanda.com/socially-anxious-girl-friendship-classroom/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic https://www.boredpanda.com/socially-anxious-girl-friendship-... The above is an example on how the entire school thought some girl was stupid because she asked too many questions. They were right in a way but also wrong. This is anecdotal evidence, but the fact that an entire school thought this way makes it pseudo statistical as the population of a school is quite large. The quality of the questions you ask matters and yes like all inborn behavior it can be overridden.