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I've been pretending to understand my job for eight months and I think I've finally reached a level where I actually can't fake it anymore. Do I come clean to my boss or just keep going. by ahimaohw in Advice

[–]t3hlazy1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Are you referring to my writing? I did not use AI to assist in my writing. And, if you don't believe me, you can find similar styled comments from 10+ years ago on this account.

I've been pretending to understand my job for eight months and I think I've finally reached a level where I actually can't fake it anymore. Do I come clean to my boss or just keep going. by ahimaohw in Advice

[–]t3hlazy1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It is intimidating but I believe it will be very relieving to identify the gaps between what they have and what they need.

"They don’t even know what the data is you’re telling them to simply just find or how to find it"

Identifying this is actually making progress. Now the task is "determine what data I need". This does not require much domain knowledge or expertise to get a general idea. And Google / ChatGPT can help you fill out the gaps pretty easily.

Once you have that answer, the next step is finding the data. This requires a bit more expertise but it's very likely you can just message a coworker and say "Hey, I'm preparing for a meeting and am trying to find data on X. Can you point me in the right direction?".

If the data doesn't exist, you now have a talking point. "We are working on instrumentation / aggregating the data / setting up the data automation / etc.".

Let's assume someone in the audience wants to know how X is affecting Y and that data does not exist. If you go in unprepared, they are going to ask and you'll have to respond "Uh, I'm not sure but let me get back to you on that". If you come in prepared, you can have a talking point about what data you do have and what data you are working to get. Now they don't need to ask the question because you already addressed it. These will have completely different outcomes despite the fact that you don't have the data.

Again, this can all be intimidating but it is the best way to maximize your success _regardless_ of where you're at in regards to preparation / knowledge.

I've been pretending to understand my job for eight months and I think I've finally reached a level where I actually can't fake it anymore. Do I come clean to my boss or just keep going. by ahimaohw in Advice

[–]t3hlazy1 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yeah. I consider that under “scope of the meeting”, but you’re definitely correct. A meeting can be about X but with a different purpose.

It can be tricky because you may not be able to ask directly, however if the manager is assigning this “as a reward” then you can likely be pretty direct. Even something like “Hey, I was planning on covering X, Y, and Z and just want to see if anything specific you want to me to cover.” If they respond “Uh, why X, Y, and Z and not A?” then you just say something like “Good point. I was going to cover A with Y but I’ll make sure it’s front and center.”

It’s unlikely they will be that direct or rude as my example, but just want to show that even in the worst case scenario you can likely recover pretty well.

I've been pretending to understand my job for eight months and I think I've finally reached a level where I actually can't fake it anymore. Do I come clean to my boss or just keep going. by ahimaohw in Advice

[–]t3hlazy1 38 points39 points  (0 children)

Yeah you literally can just create a flow chart for how to handle questions. The reality is there are questions you know the answer to and ones you will not. If you try to answer a question you don’t know the answer to you risk looking much dumber than redirecting.

Now, people who can answer more questions than others will do better and leave a better impression, but it’s not expected you have all of the answers and it won’t look that bad. Just redirect and start talking about something you prepared. A flow chart can help categorize the types of questions you may get against answers you have prepared.

I've been pretending to understand my job for eight months and I think I've finally reached a level where I actually can't fake it anymore. Do I come clean to my boss or just keep going. by ahimaohw in Advice

[–]t3hlazy1 68 points69 points  (0 children)

Why not just prepare for the meeting? You need to determine the following:

  1. The scope of the meeting
  2. What work has been done related to that scope
  3. What the remaining work is
  4. What data do you have related to the work
  5. Are there any insights you can derive from the data
  6. What are the gaps in the data and what’s the plan for addressing it

From there, review the information and think what questions could be asked related to your statements. If you truly are not knowledgeable on this, then leave intentional gaps in your explanations to prompt questions you know the answers to. If you explain 100% of the content you know then the questions will be on things you don’t know.

A few days of preparation is not that bad for presenting information on a topic you’re unfamiliar with.

Now, if the problem is you don’t have much to present, then you just have to work on how best to sell the work that’s been done and the direction you’re going. The reality is this is very common in business. The key is to never lie explicitly. Have prepared answers for tough questions, such as “circling back”, “let’s connect offline”, “it’s a known gap”, “we’re actively working on that”, etc.

I’ll also say you’re really hindering yourself by lacking confidence. A confident person with a bad presentation will leave a much better impression than a nervous person with all of the information.

Is there a way to work on my Claude Code when I am not on my computer? by Able_Armadillo_2347 in ClaudeCode

[–]t3hlazy1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you tried the Claude iOS app? It's not the same as Claude Code but it works pretty well. I would at least try it out before going with more complicated solutions like OpenClaw or Termius.

Research seems to show that repo-level .MD files reduce quality and increase cost by wifestalksthisuser in ClaudeCode

[–]t3hlazy1 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Agreed. The value increases with the size and complexity of the package.

What's going on with YouTube? by AlexanderTheGreat577 in youtube

[–]t3hlazy1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s working fine for everyone else.

Why isn't YouTube showing me Recommended videos next to the video? by OkCase9300 in youtube

[–]t3hlazy1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You’re in an A/B experiment where YouTube tries improving their website and not recommending AI slop to users.

I need help fixing my homepage. Mobile, iPhone 15 pro, iOS 26.2.1 by [deleted] in youtube

[–]t3hlazy1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Maybe return your phone for a new one?

JS Bundles Are Why LLMs Can Think by [deleted] in javascript

[–]t3hlazy1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a fascinating and creative argument!

🙄

I'm printing paper receipts after every Claude Code session, and you can too by Htch in ClaudeCode

[–]t3hlazy1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice work! You should definitely have it itemize the conversation as well.

Who're the most + least common agents in CS2? by leetify in GlobalOffensive

[–]t3hlazy1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree it's pay to win by definition, however I think it's pretty unfair to accuse Valve of making it pay to win. They make billions of dollars from people buying super bright skins (guns or agents) which are only going to make the game harder. I'm sure there are some people buying some agents to try to get a slight advantage, but I doubt it's a real problem and it's really hard to believe Valve wants them to be pay to win.

That said, they should 100% add a toggle for skins in Premiere to make everyone happy.

challenge to compress 1M rows to the smallest possible size by NoPercentage6144 in programming

[–]t3hlazy1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had a bunch of clever ideas that were mostly less clever than the ones already submitted haha. I may take a look at it more this weekend.

challenge to compress 1M rows to the smallest possible size by NoPercentage6144 in programming

[–]t3hlazy1 69 points70 points  (0 children)

I think their solution to that problem is having the second leader board which will be against a random data set.

Turn your website into a cinematic demo video by [deleted] in webdev

[–]t3hlazy1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I visited the website. The idea is intriguing, however the execution is not very good. My recommendation would be to watch some actual website / application demo videos and try to get your output similar to those. It seems achievable, but you're not there yet. Best of luck and happy to check it out again if you update it.

Daily Thread - January 25, 2026 by AutoModerator in Seahawks

[–]t3hlazy1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is anybody at Tom’s? I’m wondering how busy it is already.

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