Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Willingness to look stupid

danluu.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

511–520 of 811 posts

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#511

Post by JJMcJ »

Ensorceled wrote: post #247
alexandrerond wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally. There's distance between: "people think I'm stupid because I'm not scared to show that I don't know about something" and some of the examples which are more along the lines of "people think I'm stupid because I act as a self-entitled genius who provides little context or reasoning behind choices and expect everyone to line up behind with no question" What is the Apple store employee supposed to do to not mak…

> The insurance dealer does his job and tries to get a higher premium? Not surprised. This is actually an example of where the author IS stupid. You will often be found "at fault" in cases where you are not actually at fault (the other driver lies better than your truth) and there are many cases (at least in Ontario) where you are legislatively at fault even if you did nothing out of the ordinary (making a left turn…

Here in the US, and I assume in Canada as well, there are two main kinds of car insurance:

Liability - that pays for damages/injuries to others

Collision/Comprehensive - that pays for damage to your car

It sounds like the author wanted Liability but didn't want to pay for Collision. If you have significant assets and/or a cheap car, it may be to your advantage not to get the collision. Except he didn't use the customary terms but described them rather elliptically.

In fact, take the money you save on Collision and get more Liability is not a bad idea.

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#512

Post by JJMcJ »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #431
pja wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you’ve got that backwards - he wanted to only buy coverage for damage he did to other vehicles / people & not to cover his own vehicle. However, sometimes, for some drivers, fully comprehensive insurance can be cheaper than 3rd party only for arcane internal insurance risk-accounting reasons. So by not letting his agent even look at the whole market he was cutting himself off from the possibility of cheaper i…

I am curious to the mechanics of how the accounting situation arises that an insurer would benefit from taking on more liability for less revenue. The entire business is heavily regulated and based on accurately accounting and pricing risk. It seems suspect that a regulator would allow such an obviously mispriced insurance product.

They are not taking on more liability.

The insurance company now has no responsibility to repair the insured vehicle so they have less responsibility.

I suspect Collision insurance is very profitable compared to liability.

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#513

Post by JJMcJ »

WA wrote: post #145

> Going into an Apple store and asking for (and buying) the computer that comes in the smallest box, which I had a good reason to want at the time This is such an odd example. Because OP makes an uncommon request, the sales person can't parse what this request is about, and neither can I for that matter, and OP doesn't give a reason. So the sales person thinks: What an odd request , which in turn is parsed by the OP…

I know nothing about the products involved, but I assume it was along the lines of "I want a Mac Foo 342, which happens to come in the smallest box, so you can't miss it".

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#514

Post by ValentineC »

beaner wrote: post #463
nzealand wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An EVP of Ops of a fortune 500 did this to an entire room of functional experts. We were there to discuss a technical implementation. She kicked it off by saying "Let me start by asking a simple question, why do we do this function?" I am now considered a domain expert. I love this question. It surprises me at how few people start with the why, or even can articulate the why. The room of experts, were assembled to ro…

If it was just a setup to eventually providing an answer she already had in her pocket, is that the same thing really that's being discussed? Willingness to look stupid and earnestness to find an answer?

Sounds a bit like the Socratic method [1], just used for making sure everyone is aligned with the fundamental goals.

As someone who's recently been put in a position to make sure everyone's aligned (and failing quite a bit at it), it sounds like genius, in my opinion.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#517

Post by aroberge »

technobabble wrote: post #424
mywittyname wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the best people I've ever worked with used this approach. "I'm going to ask stupid questions now." and "Just so I'm understanding the problem, ." were two phrases she used all the time . I am surprised at how difficult it has been to emulate her technique. Feeling comfortable asking the obvious questions is one half of the battle, but the other, more difficult half, is knowing what obvious questions to ask. Mo…

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm commenting on this thread so I can save it for future reference.

Perhaps a better approach is to click on "favorite" at the top. I personally find it easier than trying to go through my comments history.

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#518

Post by ZephyrBlu »

blfr wrote: post #130

As a man, every condescending comment you get in person only tells you one thing: your deadlift PR is still too low. Get jacked and all these problems disappear. No matter how silly your questions and objections, no matter how dumb they may think you are, all your concerns will be treated very seriously, criticism couched in most polite terms, and weird stuff written off as eccentric. (It helps to be taller, well-dre…

It's amusing to see people get worked up over this. I'm not even jacked, but it's obvious that having a lot of muscle mass makes you look more intimidating and dominant.

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#520

Post by jFriedensreich »

i have met people like this and never thought they were stupid, but really rude. The point is not that they not only do not care if they look stupid, they also don't care or enjoy if they confuse/ create unease in their conversation partner by witholding critical information to let them understand their reasoning. the best case is something like aristotle where at the end of a conversation there is some revelation that makes you take another standpoint. but the worst example is asking for a computer in the smallest box without sharing the WHY. this action likely shows that someone either treats the partner as a monkey working in a store whose human whish to understand is worth less than the energy to give a reason or it shows an autistic enjoyment if creating confusion because normal human interactions are perceived as boring.
Post reply on HN