[malaise]

It irks me to no end when developers assume that staying silent or non-committal is a sin. Wise developers are often silent, as they know what they don’t know. And I’d much rather work with someone I like who is willing to say they’re wrong than with someone highly confident that must win arguments.

[sfn42]

It's clearly not about that. You can win an argument without being right, the phrase is not win lots of arguments.

It's also not about confidence. You can be confidently wrong.

Being silent is mostly useless. If you sit through a whole meeting without saying a word you didn't contribute at all. I don't want colleagues who don't contribute.

I want colleagues who respectfully chime in when they know something the rest of us don't, that's also the colleague I try to be. It happens quite frequently that I'm in a meeting where the consensus among my colleagues is gravitating towards something that isn't correct. So then I chime in explaining why I think this is the wrong thing to focus on or why this idea won't work or maybe I have an idea I think is more likely to achieve the result we want.

I'm not going to push it or argue, people are allowed to disagree with me. I really appreciate it when people explain how I'm wrong but if they just ignore my advice I won't make a stink about that either.

[malaise]

> If you sit through a whole meeting without saying a word you didn't contribute at all.

I used to be work with a software architect on a sizable team who spoke less than most others. But when he did speak, it was like the old commercial about E.F. Hutton- everyone listened. If one of us were having a personal conversation with him, he spent most of the time listening. Before he did speak, there would be frequently be some silence as he thoughtfully considered what to say and then he would respond with few words, carefully thought out, intelligent, and wise. He worked on the hardest problems we had, and he was one of the few oracles that the directors, seniors, and leads would go to for advice.

He has been a strong role model for the close to twenty years since I last worked with him, though I struggle and fail every day to come anywhere close.

[sfn42]

Sounds like a great guy. I'm definitely not saying people should talk more than necessary. I generally don't talk much in meetings either unless I'm leading them or if I'm some kind of authority on the given subject like if it's a meeting about an app I am responsible for.

I'm not saying people should blabber on about anything, I'm just saying they should speak up when they have something important to say.

And if you never have anything important to say then why are you there? Either you dont know anything your colleagues don't know which makes you the least useful person on the team or you just don't care which also makes you useless.

I can sympathize with people who get jaded from working in places where nobody listens and the people in charge are morons, but if that's you then why are you still there?

[watwut]

> Being silent is mostly useless. If you sit through a whole meeting without saying a word you didn't contribute at all. I don't want colleagues who don't contribute.

People who talk just to talk are not just useless, but drag for everyone else. There is nothing valuable about weighting into everything.

People who have strong opinions on stuff they know little about are also causing harm.

[sfn42]

Completely agree.