4 ms·

I might be a slow thinker as well, or at least not as smart as I think I am. As I’ve gotten older I’ve started taking Mark Twain’s quote to heart: “It's better

I might be a slow thinker as well, or at least not as smart as I think I am. As I’ve gotten older I’ve started taking Mark Twain’s quote to heart: “It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt.” In the case of thinking in the moment, if I don’t have something cogent to add, I say as little as possible.

satysin 4y ago
> It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt.” In the case of thinking in the moment, if I don’t have something cogent to add, I say as little as possible. Many people know this yet still fail to do it. I am much the same although I was not always. I used to jump in first with a quick and usually basic comment. Now I listen and think of multiple responses before I open my mouth. Is it maturity? Wisdom I have picked up over the past two decades? Perhaps my brain is just a slower with age? I don’t know but I certainly feel less pressure to answer first these days. If someone comes to me first for comment I will almost always answer with “I will need to think about that a bit more and get back to you”. I’ve had a few people give me unsolicited feedback that I don’t “engage” enough (what they mean here is fast enough). To which I just say it is far easier to start correctly a bit later than start sooner and make mistakes. Undoing mistakes, in my experience, takes far more time than starting a little later. This is especially true in design, development and management. Sometimes undoing mistakes is not possible without throwing all previous work out and starting over. That to me is far more frustrating and wasteful than taking a little time before you start to give yourself the best possible platform from which to begin.
- mywrathacademia 4y ago
  Hey _l4jh, apologies for being off-topic but I came across your comment in this post https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27824447 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27824447 but there was no way for me to reply there. Did you ever find an answer to what was causing your chest pain? And if you did were you able to treat it completely? I'm having the same symptoms you had, mostly a sore kind of pain in the centre of my chest, sometimes all over the surface of my stomach too.
  - satysin 4y ago
    Hi. I’m still in the process of getting to the bottom of things. My chest pains have mostly gone away but I have other issues that I recently decided I need to get checked out properly so I’m going for a couple of MRI later this month to check my brain, nervous system etc to rule out things like MS. Feel free to email me if you want to chat a bit more. My username at gmail.com will get through to my personal email
Jensson 4y ago
You need to show how stupid you are or else people wont be able to help you correct your mistakes. Trying to hide your ignorance just ensures you will stay ignorant, people who know stuff aren't afraid to appear ignorant. People often makes the mistake thinking that those who hide their ignorance aren't ignorant. But as your quote shows, the most ignorant people are the ones who don't speak up, not those who do and get corrected. People just perceive the non speakers as less ignorant.
meken 4y ago
This quote seems like bad advice - feels like it’s telling us to focus on not looking stupid in front of other people (rather than risk asking a dumb question) and can lead to perfectionistic overanalyzing self doubt.
- Mimmy 4y ago
  [dead]
yodsanklai 4y ago
Exactly. I often regretted that I said something, rarely regretted not to have said something smart. You can always say what you have to say asynchronously. On the other hand, you can't dismiss all questions addressed to you.

satysin 4y ago

> It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt.” In the case of thinking in the moment, if I don’t have something cogent to add, I say as little as possible. Many people know this yet still fail to do it. I am much the same although I was not always. I used to jump in first with a quick and usually basic comment. Now I listen and think of multiple responses before I open my mouth. Is it maturity? Wisdom I have picked up over the past two decades? Perhaps my brain is just a slower with age? I don’t know but I certainly feel less pressure to answer first these days. If someone comes to me first for comment I will almost always answer with “I will need to think about that a bit more and get back to you”. I’ve had a few people give me unsolicited feedback that I don’t “engage” enough (what they mean here is fast enough). To which I just say it is far easier to start correctly a bit later than start sooner and make mistakes. Undoing mistakes, in my experience, takes far more time than starting a little later. This is especially true in design, development and management. Sometimes undoing mistakes is not possible without throwing all previous work out and starting over. That to me is far more frustrating and wasteful than taking a little time before you start to give yourself the best possible platform from which to begin.

mywrathacademia 4y ago
Hey _l4jh, apologies for being off-topic but I came across your comment in this post https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27824447 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27824447 but there was no way for me to reply there. Did you ever find an answer to what was causing your chest pain? And if you did were you able to treat it completely? I'm having the same symptoms you had, mostly a sore kind of pain in the centre of my chest, sometimes all over the surface of my stomach too.
- satysin 4y ago
  Hi. I’m still in the process of getting to the bottom of things. My chest pains have mostly gone away but I have other issues that I recently decided I need to get checked out properly so I’m going for a couple of MRI later this month to check my brain, nervous system etc to rule out things like MS. Feel free to email me if you want to chat a bit more. My username at gmail.com will get through to my personal email

Jensson 4y ago

You need to show how stupid you are or else people wont be able to help you correct your mistakes. Trying to hide your ignorance just ensures you will stay ignorant, people who know stuff aren't afraid to appear ignorant. People often makes the mistake thinking that those who hide their ignorance aren't ignorant. But as your quote shows, the most ignorant people are the ones who don't speak up, not those who do and get corrected. People just perceive the non speakers as less ignorant.

meken 4y ago

This quote seems like bad advice - feels like it’s telling us to focus on not looking stupid in front of other people (rather than risk asking a dumb question) and can lead to perfectionistic overanalyzing self doubt.

Mimmy 4y ago
[dead]

yodsanklai 4y ago

Exactly. I often regretted that I said something, rarely regretted not to have said something smart. You can always say what you have to say asynchronously. On the other hand, you can't dismiss all questions addressed to you.