The article seems to be catching overconfidence (a human bias) as opposed to BS (a disregard for truth). Or am I missing it?
Bullshitters: Who Are They and What Do We Know about Their Lives? [pdf]
161–170 of 270 posts
Re: Bullshitters: Who Are They and What Do We Know about Their Lives? [pdf]
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
The realization that I came to was that by speaking up I was usually asking a question that many people were not asking; by providing a strong opinion it would help to catalyze deliberate action. If you stay silent we'll never get anything really done.
There are even bullshit questions, ones that give the appearance that one has an idea or an insight when in fact they end up convolution the path to a solution that eventually emerges naturally...
There are also questions that are only designed to humiliate the one being questioned. They are performative acts, not genuine questions.
Re: Bullshitters: Who Are They and What Do We Know about Their Lives? [pdf]
#163The notion of bullshitters needs to be brought to the front of our industry's consciousness. Our industry is one where the impostor complex is rife and anyone who sounds confident must know what they're talking about, since even the PhD's aren't half as confident in their field of expertise as a bullshitter is at anything. The tech industry is increasingly inundated with these types of people who manage to get placed…
This can be done one action at a time. Every time someone claimed expertise in something I know, I ask about it. If someone uses a buzzword I don’t know, I ask them to explain it in plain English. And I ask again if they define one buzzword with another. And if they namedrop a mutual friend, I ask the connection their opinion.
BS is a cancer. Unless you’re drinking with friends, in which case it’s entertainment.
Re: Bullshitters: Who Are They and What Do We Know about Their Lives? [pdf]
#164When job postings are full of trivial BS language, why complain that some people are completely serious about playing that BS game? It's a wart of contemporary corporate culture, particularly in the tech sector. When you are searching for a "blockchain expert to influence the team", you are attracting only extrovert types maybe with good communication abilities, not a modest and calm guy possessing a sense of inner p…
I once read a wanted ad that described how their company was focused on AI, blockchains, UX, IOT, cloud computing and Big Data. That was the coveted bullshit, buzzword bingo I'd always heard about!
Re: Bullshitters: Who Are They and What Do We Know about Their Lives? [pdf]
#165The notion of bullshitters needs to be brought to the front of our industry's consciousness. Our industry is one where the impostor complex is rife and anyone who sounds confident must know what they're talking about, since even the PhD's aren't half as confident in their field of expertise as a bullshitter is at anything. The tech industry is increasingly inundated with these types of people who manage to get placed…
Hear, hear! For the love of Jesus Christ, the bullshitting in our industry must stop! This is my main gripe with our industry and the reason I've been contemplating getting the fuck out of Dodge on, holy shit, so, so many occasions. I've been in it for 25 years+. But, people who are full of shit need to shut the fuckz up. It takes a significant amount of civil courage to take tone in a meeting full of bosses. But if…
ESL here. What is "take tone"?
Re: Bullshitters: Who Are They and What Do We Know about Their Lives? [pdf]
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dude I struggle with this everyday. When I first started off in my career I was so nervous to express any technical ideas or questions in front of other people because I thought I was stupid- as I started progressing in my career I learned that a lot of the people I encountered at work who were ultra confident (and probably attributed to my tech self-consciousness) actually knew way less than I thought. I still don’t…
When you are young, you think adults have it all figured out. When you become an adult yourself, you realize a good chunk of people are straight winging it and, in many cases, entire companies are winging it all together without fully realizing it.
Also, you can start at a company where things are figured out and watch the "growth phases" introduce layer upon layer of smooth-talking, overly-confident bullshitters, and, before you know it, the entire company has gone from knowing what they're doing to entirely winging it. This is what frightens me the most, because it seems to be systemic and almost everyone that I talk to these days in tech is suffering through some phase of this problem.
Re: Bullshitters: Who Are They and What Do We Know about Their Lives? [pdf]
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, but I find I usually take a social hit by asking the question. A good 80% of those listening will think that you simply don't understand something. The other 20% are either indifferent or actively threatened by the observation. It doesn't pay to speak up about anything, you just get talked down to by those who are bullshitting.
I was kind of the same, very shy to ask questions and "look like a fool". That was until I got my PhD. I still realize that I don't know jack shit, but for some reason now I don't care, I now feel I don't have anything to prove to anyone. So, if I don't know something I just ask. Do you think I am stupid? that's your problem, not mine. Hopefully you don't need a PhD to realize that like I did.
I am in a similar situation. I once explained to my dad that having a Phd has allowed me to proudly proclaim that I don't know something without any pressure whatsoever. Not that you need a PhD to say I don't know but it helps.
Re: Bullshitters: Who Are They and What Do We Know about Their Lives? [pdf]
#168I'm not sure if this is helping anyone except making people who are not bullshitters more paranoid and the bullshitters be-hated. The bullshitters in the startup world don't get big because nobody realizes that they are talking a lot of bullshit but because those who collaborate with them are at least as greedy as they are. (I was also drinking the kool aid for some time.)
So the core problem is greed and not bullshit, and this is also what makes it toxic. FWIW even the most credible and knowledgeable people are able to fan out bullshit, everybody does this every now and then.
Re: Bullshitters: Who Are They and What Do We Know about Their Lives? [pdf]
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I don't know" is such an underappreciated phrase (followed with action to remedy that).
We had an interviewee (is that a word?) today who said that he didn't know and to me that was a reason to hire him.
I've had recently that experience as well. (We hired him.)
Re: Bullshitters: Who Are They and What Do We Know about Their Lives? [pdf]
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are the fizzbuzzers real? I feel like their existence is somewhat mythological.
I've seen people fail fizz buzz firsthand.
There are two ways of “doing fizzbuzz” or any other small interview programming problem
1) in an editor, iteratively, until it works. This is the correct way. Every developer should manage to solve FizzBuzz in this setting.
2) By writing it on paper or a whiteboard without feedback. Even the greatest developer in the world would randomly fail this. It provides zero information about the capability of a developer and no one should ever subject anyone to that type of test.