LogFAQs > #949722948

Far-Queue posted...

Until that last line I was buying into it, about to go check the Googles to see if it was true lol

The trick to effective bullshitting is to find a delicate balance between using jargon/citing technical details that most people do recognize as valid, and interspersing that among falsehoods that sound just esoteric enough to convince people that their ignorance is the only reason they haven't heard of it. It's relatively easy with fields like computer science, where people do generally recognize that they know very little about the field and are therefore more likely to believe anyone that speaks confidently on the subject while remaining consistent with the facts they already recognize.

Biology (my actual field of study) is another fun one to do it with. A lot of people understand just how weird the natural world gets, but don't necessarily have the advanced knowledge needed to know what's actually inconsistent (especially where that advanced knowledge is often pretty arbitrary, like there being no terrestrial cephalopods). You tell people about flatworm penis fencing, the South American tree octopus swinging from branches, and Japanese bees cooking giant hornets alive, and they're going to be really hard-pressed to tell you just how many lies you told them.

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