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Willingness to look stupid

danluu.com

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Re: Willingness to look stupid

#561

Post by HellDunkel »

pydry wrote: post #55

One way to prove that he truly doesn't mind looking stupid would be to list times when he risked looking stupid... and it turns out he actually was. It's happened to all of us though we dont like to admit it. I'm sure it's happened to him too and I looked but I didn't see any of those examples listed. Giving only examples of when people thought he was dumb and it turned out he wasn't... that's kind of just a roundabo…

The examples he lists are not even interesting. The fact that other people make obvious mistakes does not make you a genius.

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#562

Post by philosopher1234 »

blitz_skull wrote: post #523
downWidOutaFite wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If blm were the status quo the police would have been defunded.

I think a couple cities did that, and quickly back-tracked because crime shot up.

Thats a robust and well researched opinion you have there.

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#563

Post by hyperbovine »

In grad school, there was a certain well-known, extremely-senior-in-the-field professor who would show up to seminars and ask pointedly basic and naive-sounding questions (some might call them stupid). A lot of these questions were actually somewhat penetrating, and had an occasionally entertaining effect on the speaker. I learned much from this professor.

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#564

Post by 0xbadcafebee »

A problem with asking stupid questions is that if the person you're asking is not smart, you're gonna get stupid answers. Sometimes you have to ask it in a "smart way", or you'll be sitting there going back and forth for an hour while the other person keeps giving you stupid answers, because they couldn't see why you were asking a stupid question.

The opposite also happens. You ask a stupid question, and people try to give you "smart" answers that aren't actually answering your first question, because they assume you're stupid / "doing it wrong".

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#565

Post by nosefrog »

ctvo wrote: post #210

Can I ask a stupid question? Who is Dan Luu and why does he keep appearing here? The content hasn’t been amazing. It’s not amazing here either. The blog doesn’t have an about me page as far as I can tell. Google says Dan is a systems engineer at Nvidia. Edit: Found the About page https://danluu.com/about It's at the bottom of articles, but not accessible on the home page. If this were an actual technical topic, I'd b…

I know Dan from a friend of a friend, he's a genuinely smart guy and I've learned a lot from him.

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#566

Post by gitgud »

serial_dev wrote: post #442
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…

I don't like to say "I'm going to ask a stupid question". First of all, it feels disingenuous to me, people who say that never actually think that their questions will be stupid. And the second reason is that I think I might even convince myself that my questions are stupid... I know it sounds silly to some but little things like how you talk about yourself (and your questions) is important. I often ask these "stupid…

In my view, admitting that you "might have a stupid question" is not disingenuous, it's a form of self-depreciation that disarms people and relaxes the room.

It's important to treat yourself with respect, but people also respect when you admit that you don't know something simple.

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#567

Post by WesolyKubeczek »

dynm wrote: post #556

I'm really surprised by a lot of the negativity here. The author never claimed to actually be stupid, nor did they claim to be humble, nor did they claim that this particular essay was an exercise in looking stupid or an exercise in humility. All they did was claim there were some situations where it was beneficial to be willing to look stupid, and listed those situations.

And this could be precisely the reason of all the negativity.

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#568

Post by cbtacy »

kfarr wrote: post #343
andrewla wrote: post #338

This has happened to me frequently at my current company. I get pulled into a meeting about something that I have no context on because it touches my area of expertise, and the discussions have apparently been stalling out. I brace myself to be the idiot. I'm going to waste everyone's time asking questions that everyone knows the answer to, and I just got looped in, so everyone's going to feel like they need to walk…

Yes and it feels like the older I get the more I have to be the one that plays this role to ask these basic questions as younger professionals are fearful to look dumb in front of others

The fear of looking stupid is a profound motivator in many professions. If you want to understand why so many of the stories posted about people using this technique are of more senior folks or people with more authority (bosses, mentors, professors, etc), this is why. Being willing to potentially "look stupid" requires enormous self-confidence.

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#569

Post by perl4ever »

ValentineC wrote: post #514
beaner wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It doesn't seem like the same thing as asking dumb questions to uncover the truth that nobody has yet synthesized.

When you already (think you) know the answer, then it's a pedagogical technique. That's ok unless you happen to be wrong about the answer.

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#570

Post by fungiblecog »

i always start my questions with something like "maybe i'm being a bit thick but..." which works well because it signposts up front that you're not trying to be awkward or obstructive. Most of the time it turns out that a bunch of other people had the same questions but didn't want to appear stupid
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