Shibboleths that get you past the initial script stage
I&#x27;ve found that pretending to know someone&#x27;s profession, or one related to it, is generally a <i>very bad</i> approach. It&#x27;s easily seen through, at which point you&#x27;re worse off than before. Instead, what I do with members of other professions is try to impress on them that I do <i>not</i> know their business but respect its complexity and our roles within the scenario. Whether it&#x27;s a doctor or a plumber or even a computer technician (a field which I probably <i>do</i> know better than they do), I explicitly steer away from diagnoses even when I have a pretty clear idea what the problem is. Instead I describe as clearly as possible symptoms, timing&#x2F;frequency, possibly related changes, things I&#x27;ve tried and results I&#x27;ve gotten, etc. This has generally worked much better for me than deceptive or manipulative hacks. Often I get thanks or compliments for having made their job easier, which makes me happy. YMMV