Refuse to ‘understand’ things unless they are very clear. I don’t really know how to do this, because I don’t know what the alternative is like—being steadfastly confused about things seems to come naturally to me and I don’t know how else to be, but maybe you have both affordances available here and could lean one way or the other.
I’m interpreting this to mean: don’t be dazzled by bullshit. Don’t just nod along to authoritative-sounding, jargon-filled rhetoric simply because it has the veneer of deepness. Understand here is in quotes. I think it just means in this case to go along.
In grad school, there were many colloquia where a visiting professor would give a presentation. Everyone would nod along. A few polite questions would be asked, and then after some light applause we’d partake of butter cookies and punch. Meanwhile, I would often be sitting there wondering what the hell just happened. What were they really saying? If they were saying X, wasn’t that just complete nonsense? But it would take me a while to think through it and parse it to find out the content really was vacuous.
Over the years I’ve found a good technique is to try to translate complex-sounding claims into their simplest form. Sometimes this is difficult. Some complex things are necessarily complex. In academia, though, complexity is very often a smokescreen, and the simplicity translation often exposes this.
I’m interpreting this to mean: don’t be dazzled by bullshit. Don’t just nod along to authoritative-sounding, jargon-filled rhetoric simply because it has the veneer of deepness. Understand here is in quotes. I think it just means in this case to go along.
In grad school, there were many colloquia where a visiting professor would give a presentation. Everyone would nod along. A few polite questions would be asked, and then after some light applause we’d partake of butter cookies and punch. Meanwhile, I would often be sitting there wondering what the hell just happened. What were they really saying? If they were saying X, wasn’t that just complete nonsense? But it would take me a while to think through it and parse it to find out the content really was vacuous.
Over the years I’ve found a good technique is to try to translate complex-sounding claims into their simplest form. Sometimes this is difficult. Some complex things are necessarily complex. In academia, though, complexity is very often a smokescreen, and the simplicity translation often exposes this.