I’m talking about derogatory terms like “nerd,” “geek,” “wise-ass,” and so on, as well as sayings like “nobody likes a smart aleck.”
It seems to me that these terms and expressions are used much more frequently in the business world than derogatory terms like “show-off,” “charlatan,” “fraud,” and so on.
I can’t even think of a commonly used saying for the latter. Only: “Fake it till you make it,” which is really more of a reinforcement of the idea that knowledge isn’t very valuable.
Is it just my impression?
I’d have to guess a majority of people know what they are talking about, or they don’t.
Pretending to know something just makes you a liar.
Yeah, sure, but I get the impression that these people are rarely referred to as such. Then again, maybe that’s just my impression.
Just today I had a meeting with a whole delegation of management consultants: three highly paid people, and they all kept throwing out one buzzword after another. When I asked for clarification or rather for detail, however, it quickly became clear that not a single one of them had even a basic understanding of what they were talking about.