I love these disfluencies, at the right times.<p>Obviously there are variations on use; where cases like overuse from being unprepared can be painful to listen to... But when obviously pausing to think of the best way to describe something to a particular&#x2F;unfamiliar audience, or summarize a broader idea down to a specific area being discussed, I&#x27;ve noticed how helpful it can be in understanding, at least for the way that &#x2F;I&#x2F; listen to people.<p>When I hear somebody &quot;um&quot;, to think of the best intersection between what they know, context, and what I know, my mind is trying to do the exact same thing, or even beat them to it. For me, this definitely engages me more; even if I come to the wrong conclusion, my conscious thought is saturated with putting these pieces together. Any related information is already active, and easier to link together. -- Compared to someone speed-reading a prepared statement, where I may come away with some high level knowledge, but be too busy parsing the flow of speech to contemplate many of the finer points as they come.