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or, if you’re like most people, you’ve probably just smiled and nodded while thinking to yourself “What the hell does that mean?” If you do that, you failed th

or, if you’re like most people, you’ve probably just smiled and nodded while thinking to yourself “What the hell does that mean?” If you do that, you failed the test. People who use inside jargony things love to explain them, and love to be asked what they mean. Also, they can usually tell when you don't pick up on it. When I interview someone I'll throw in something company specific, that I know they won't understand, just to see if they'll ask me what I meant. I don't want to work with someone that is afraid to admit they don't know something.

elwell 5y ago
> just to see if they'll ask me what I meant I like that. Also, on the job, I try to be willing to ask for explanations even if I think I have a good guess. One thing you ending up finding is that other people often don't know either, but everyone was just going to be quiet about it.
blablabla123 5y ago
I can relate to that and it's really important to ask questions. Also it can be quite irritating when people try to look smart instead of being actually interested in the point. On the other hand jargon is not an exact science. There are things like false friends, commonly incorrectly used terms and all that. That's why spoken language is usually spoken redundantly. Also sometimes the acoustic is bad and you don't want to ask 10 times a minute. Or the person says something incorrectly but you realize what the person actually means because of the surrounding context.
karomancer 5y ago
Totally agreed. That being said, I find a lot of junior devs scared to ask and I've run into some senior devs who are a bit high and mighty and judge you if you don't know. It's why I started writing these articles (junior devs I mentor will ask me what things mean after hearing them in meetings/seeing them in PRs) But...ideally one should just ask, like with anything else!

elwell 5y ago

> just to see if they'll ask me what I meant I like that. Also, on the job, I try to be willing to ask for explanations even if I think I have a good guess. One thing you ending up finding is that other people often don't know either, but everyone was just going to be quiet about it.

blablabla123 5y ago

I can relate to that and it's really important to ask questions. Also it can be quite irritating when people try to look smart instead of being actually interested in the point. On the other hand jargon is not an exact science. There are things like false friends, commonly incorrectly used terms and all that. That's why spoken language is usually spoken redundantly. Also sometimes the acoustic is bad and you don't want to ask 10 times a minute. Or the person says something incorrectly but you realize what the person actually means because of the surrounding context.

karomancer 5y ago

Totally agreed. That being said, I find a lot of junior devs scared to ask and I've run into some senior devs who are a bit high and mighty and judge you if you don't know. It's why I started writing these articles (junior devs I mentor will ask me what things mean after hearing them in meetings/seeing them in PRs) But...ideally one should just ask, like with anything else!