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

[recordersmith.livejournal.com]

I know when I do something like that from my point of view I'm presenting hypotheses, not giving answers that I think are cast in stone. I'm used to, in my line of work, not saying "I dont know" but rather saying "well it could be X" (and then usually going and figuring out if that's right). This does often spill over into answering people's questions or statements--I'm less likely to just say "I dont know" and more likely to immediately think of what possibilities are, and I really want to be helpful rather than a dead end. I hope I make that clear in my phraseology, but I might not always.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a simple "it could be" makes a world of difference. This guy really gives the impression he's trying to win a fight all the time, rather than present possibilities.