4 ms·
One of the best advices I got: "stop acting like you're the smartest person in the room, even if you are" so I started acting like the stupidest person in the r
by dekhn 3y ago
One of the best advices I got: "stop acting like you're the smartest person in the room, even if you are" so I started acting like the stupidest person in the room. Often times, by asking the dumbest question in the naivest way possible, you can expose a lot of bad ideas.
- lo_zamoyski 3y agoA thousand times, yes. They're not dumb questions, of course. They're pure, simple, and relevant. They're the strongest questions one can ask. The best.
- specialist 3y agoThe Columbo Method
- mbork_pl 3y agoOr the Feynman one.
- roughly 3y agoOh my god yes. It's also So Much more fun and interesting! You get to learn from people!
- dekhn 3y agoWell... it's more like by asking an extremely dumb question helps other people in the room know when they're being bullshitted. "So, I see your business model is to make widgets. But ... uh... I don't really understand these ideas but that's called capital intensive, right? So, you're gonna have a factory, with a bunch of workers... in San Francisco? Won't that be really expensive, and ... uh, I guess that means your profit margin will be small? Could you put your factory in Kansas?" (paraphrased but essentially accurate question I asked when being pitched by a hardware startup at a major VC that I advised)