> and it feels weird to sit there in silence for 15 seconds as I do so. This is what filler words like "so..", "um", "ah.." are for. They mean "I'm thinking a

> and it feels weird to sit there in silence for 15 seconds as I do so. This is what filler words like "so..", "um", "ah.." are for. They mean "I'm thinking and will respond in a moment". I'll also often start the answer sentence even if I'm still thinking, but very slowly to stretch out the thinking time. "Soo.. if.. the... thing does.. that.. then we have to foobar."