People who talk as if they know

[cjsmith]

I have a coworker who talks as if he is an authority -- full of confidence, very firm statements -- when he doesn't have any information or experience to back it up.

Random person: "Hey, where's a good dosa restaurant?"
Him: "Restaurant A is the best."
Me: "I like Restaurant B, too."
Him: "A is way better."
Me: "Have you ever been to Restaurant B?"

No, of course; he hadn't. I had to ask him twice before he admitted it, too. So he knows when he's doing this, and he doesn't like getting caught at it.

In another hallway conversation, just now, he spouted off about flying airplanes, a subject I have some minor experience with. Now that I know he doesn't like being confronted, I stopped myself short of asking outright if he had a pilot's license. (Obviously, I'm convinced he doesn't.) I did go ahead and mention what "my flight instructor" had "taught me" about the topic "when I was getting my license". He had the grace to stop making shit up for a few minutes.

How the heck do people deal with somebody like this? Dude, you're POLLUTING THE DATA STREAM. Shut UP. But maybe I'm oversensitive about people making things up and presenting them as truth. Maybe people are smarter than I think, and there isn't any increased tendency to believe a person just because he's confident and loud. (And maybe the Easter Bunny really is ten feet tall.)

Comments

[gdmusumeci.livejournal.com]

I did go ahead and mention what "my flight instructor" had "taught me" about the topic "when I was getting my license".

You seem to have mistyped "certificate." ;-)

Anyways, I hate this sort of behavior. I used to violently crucify people who did this. Seriously, their heads were on pikes outside my office. But now in my tender old age, I have mellowed out and learned that it is not really worth spending the energy to get worked up over it, and I just ignore them.

Sometimes this happens in meetings, though, and then I get a good few minutes of amusement out of drawing little cartoons of them being dismembered and thrown into the flaming belly of Moloch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch).

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

You seem to have mistyped "certificate." ;-)

You're absolutely right, I have. :-)

I haven't mellowed yet. We've got two blustery clattermouths in the organization, one of whom is this guy and the other of whom is simply happiest when telling everybody things they already know or telling people how to do their jobs. I want duct tape, I tell you. Duct tape. I think if these two couldn't spout off at the mouth they'd explode into tiny bits.