There's a flip side to this. Not sure if it's mentioned in the article since I only skimmed it. The complementary point is that it really is stupid to try and

There's a flip side to this. Not sure if it's mentioned in the article since I only skimmed it. The complementary point is that it really is stupid to try and make other people look stupid. And it's stupid because it's counter-productive, not because it reveals that you're trying to learn something, which is covered by the article. This problem seems to be endemic in tech (although, subjectively, it seems to have improved over the past couple years or so). It's such a trope and a drag to deal with people who act like everything is obvious. Don't they enjoy talking about things they understand? Then they should act like all questions are great and answer them with words. It's fun for the whole family. Actually, that does seem to maybe cut to the heart of the matter. Maybe those types don't like "dumb" questions because they don't really understand anything and are trying to hide it. P.S. I guess the article does touch on this when it mentions the anecdote about the people in class and the "dumb" questions being posed to the teacher. Come to think of it, I guess the whole article is kinda like a commentary on this phenomenon actually :).