Exploiting mansplaining as tradecraft during WW II:
“If she wants to know something specific, but doesn’t want people to notice her asking questions, she should simply make incorrect statements while in the company of experts. Her companions will correct her, especially if they're men.”
From Elyse Graham's “Book and Dagger”, describing a training school for the SOE.
@dbaplanb @wendynather @SteveBellovin It works for me, too.
I don't have to do it often, because I'm not a woman. I do have long hair, though, which is the same thing in some people's eyes.
@SteveBellovin hilarious I just came across this. Slightly askew of it.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DDYLDR6yxg9/
#CarisaHendrix #LucyDarling #improv #crowdwork #comedy #standup
76K likes, 335 comments - carisahendrix on December 9, 2024: "Loved meeting Chris at the Chicago magic Lounge last week, although it was a rough start. #magic #crowdwork #lucydarling #chicago filmed and edited by the exceptionally @jackbrandtman for a project with @vanishingincmagic @chicagomagiclounge".
@SteveBellovin Chris got redeemed in the followup
4,053 likes, 33 comments - carisahendrix on December 11, 2024: "Chris is really restoring my environment. #magic #crowdwork #lucydarling #chicago #comedy #comedian #magician #drag filmed and edited by the exceptionally talented @chicagoaussie for a project with #vanishinginc at the @chicagomagiclounge".
@wolfkin @SteveBellovin
Yeah, superficially, that does look bad. But I can easily imagine cases that aren't as bad as it looks. Perhaps Chris has never had to explain what he does, so had never thought about how to put it succinctly. Thus he flails trying, and when pressed further, decides to give a simple but actually incorrect answer, just to end the questioning. Having given a simple answer, it then looks bad that he said it was hard to explain.
And/or, Chris is the sort of person who freezes when put on the spot, or has a lot of attention called to them, and thus was unable to even recall words, let alone what he actually does. Then finally opts for the strategy mentioned above, to the same effect.
I know that I've been in situations like that where I'll just give any simple but incorrect answer to stop a line a questioning that is already making me feel uncomfortable. And yeah, it sometimes has unforeseen consequences.
I'm in this picture and I don't like it.
In all seriousness, a basic understanding if human psychology is a superpower.
@SteveBellovin This is really effective with senior scientists, too. If you ask them directly they'll often just suck on their teeth and ask what grant cost code they should use, and how they're very busy.
Instead, just make your best guess with a load of accidentally incorrect statements and they'll usually correct you in a very articulate, useful, and illuminating way (while turning red).
Then say back to them what you thought they said, and they'll angrily correct all your mistakes. Keep on doing this. When they give up responding, say or act on it in public in a way that you know they'll find out.
They'll usually get super annoyed with you and treat you with utter contempt for your numb-headedness. But you're not at work to make friends, you're there to do a job, and sometimes finding out is your job.
Often 3rd parties will come to you and say "actually, I didn't know that either". Everyone at work is secretly scared of appearing stupid to their colleagues, if you're not, you've at a great advantage..
@chiffchaff @SteveBellovin of course this is also what used to be called the 'Usenet Counterfactual Strategy': the best way to get a question answered on Usenet was to confidently post the wrong answer. Dozens of posters who wouldn't have bothered to follow up if you'd just posted the question will fall over themselves to quibble with you.
I'd never heard of weaponising it for espionage until today, though!
The story of #JeannieRousseau ("#Amniarix") may be in that book (sadly, I haven't read it yet).
»By 1943, Rousseau was overhearing the most sensitive information -- tales of special weapons that were being designed in eastern #Germany. She suspected that she had stumbled upon one of the big secrets of the war.
But how did she get them to talk to a 23-year-old French woman?
The German officers were a close-knit group, she said, and they would gather often in the evenings at a house on the Avenue Hoche. They would drink and talk, often in the company of their beautiful French friend who spoke such good German. They would talk freely among themselves about their work, and though they usually didn't talk to Rousseau directly, they didn't mind her being there.
"I had become part of the equipment, a piece of furniture," she recalls. "I was such a little one, sitting with them, and I could not but hear what was said. And what they did not say, I prompted.
"I teased them, taunted them, looked at them wide-eyed, insisted that they must be mad when they spoke of the astounding new weapon that flew over vast distances, much faster than any airplane. I kept saying: 'What you are telling me cannot be true!' I must have said that 100 times.
"'I'll show you,' one of the Germans said. 'How,' I asked, and he answered: 'It's here on a piece of paper!' "«
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Frenchwoman-Reveals-Tale-of-Spying-on-Nazis-2954188.php
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