Humphrey Archer22h ago

As an almost 70 year old man, I have some advice for young men.

Please boost this if you think it will help

1. Your voice doesn't need to be heard. In fact, realizing that you don’t HAVE to have an opinion on everything and voice opinions or ideas in meetings or social gatherings, is amazingly liberating. You can actually just shut up, and relieve yourself of all that effort and stress. Let Bob utter his embarrassingly dumb idea, let Shirley have a say. You can just let it be for the most part

Show threadEmelia/Emi16h ago

@screwturn Hell, back before I was visibly [gestures vaguely at current self], I actually struggled to convince my coworkers that I didn't have an opinion occasionally, which means that there's at least partially pressure from people expecting that behavior. Learn to override and shut down those toxic expectations before they take hold.

(There were a whole bunch of times where my coworkers didn't appear to understand that "Can't form a a reasonable opinion with the amount of information available" was even an option. Back when I first started, they were asking for my opinion on topics and systems I knew nothing about, and didn't seem to believe that I truly didn't have any due to that lack of information)

Show threadEmily Vale, Gendermancer
@becomethewaifu @screwturn yup, same. I've been asked many times in meetings if I had anything to add. I find that someone either brought up my point or that I just didn't have anything to add. I don't usually contribute in meetings. When I do, I'm pretty enthusiastic about it, so maybe talk about something I do have opinions about. 😝
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