When I built my website for the first time in the spring, I was trying as hard as I could to sound smart. I wanted to sound like those veteran designers. I went through a whole bunch of their websites and tried to pick up as many design jargon as possible.

Then I stumbled across this by Adam Grant a couple of weeks ago.

Jargon isn't a sign of expertise; it's a signal of insecurity. Nine new studies show that when people lack status, they resort to unnecessarily technical language in an attempt to look smart.

Ouch. But that’s so true though. I really was desperate. I was trying to cover up my insecurity with jargon as a smoke screen.

But I was fortunate to join the community of Write of Passage this summer. One of the biggest takeaways was knowing that I was not the only one struggling with the insecurity issue. Seeing the smart, motivated, and accomplished people Zoomed-up and personal, I’ve learned that the concept of status is so relative.

As a new designer, I’m not as good as those award-winning designers. But hey, I’m obviously OK compared to non-designers. Ditto with coding. I’m clueless about HTML, CSS, and JS that make up the frontend of what we see online, but I can still visually wiggle through and code with Webflow to crank out a decent website.

Status is relative. It all depends on the context. I used to feel stuck and have nowhere to go but now I know that I have no time for that. If I don’t like my status here, I can get moving. When I shifted my point of view to the world outside of what I can see in my tangible real life, I realized that there are people who actually find me interesting.

I’m currently in the talk with a design agency and they said they could use some help from “a Webflow Expert.” I was like, “Wait! Who’s the Webflow expert?” Yes, I did cold-email its founder but I was looking for an internship and I never introduced myself as an expert in anything.

But then here I am replying to their inquiry with “I can deliver the look and feel of the website you want with 80% probability. What else can I do to hit all your goals?”

No, I still don’t want to sound too stupid but I’m getting better at not knowing much. I can just ask and listen. In that sense, “being stupid” is a pretty good starting point for everything.

They say, “Fake it until you make it.” I feel like that works fine for smart people, but that doesn’t seem to work with me. I’m too stupid to power through with jargon and stuff.

I’d rather start stupid by asking.