I stopped trusting the instant answer

Twenty plus years in and the thing I've stopped trusting is the instant answer.

Not competence. Speed. The person who fires back in a full sentence, textbook clean, no hedge anywhere in it. I used to read that as expertise. Now I mostly want to watch them touch the actual thing.

The people I listen to go quiet first. They tinker. They open it up, try something, break it a little, then come back and explain it in their own words. That explanation is worth ten of the fast one, because it came from the thing instead of from a page.

The ones who are never wrong in front of you are either new or not telling you.

Somebody who says I got that wrong, here's what it broke, here's what I did about it, has my full attention. I've never regretted trusting that person.