Skip to main content


What area do you consider yourself an expert in?


  1. Self deprecating humor. Just kidding, I'm not good at anything
    — gafiggle

  2. Turning food into poop
    — Simohy

  3. **Technobabble**. The term "technobabble" refers to the semi-nonsensical jargon that gets used in fiction whenever a character needs to explain why they're pushing buttons and/or making things go beep. "Star Trek" is a famous stage for technobabble, and shows like "[Arrow](https://imgur.com/a/SdG7U)" and "[Flash](https://imgur.com/a/C9XsZ)" have had some outrageously bad examples, but it's a staple of any genre that involves advanced technology that's intended to offer immersion, explanation, and exposition all at once. Most technobabble that you'll encounter will follow a standard format: ------ >**CHARACTER ONE:** Technobabble. >**CHARACTER TWO:** Layman's explanation. >**CHARACTER ONE:** Technobabble response, layman's conclusion. >**CHARACTER TWO:** Possible agreement or disagreement, suggestion of action. ------ The formula is supposed to give viewers the opportunity to see the inner workings of the science or technology being used by the characters, and also to help them understand why a given concept is important. Unfortunately, it has been done to death at this point, and it's usually little more than nonsense plastered atop a plot device: ------ >**CHARACTER ONE:** The phase extrapolation is off the charts! >**CHARACTER TWO:** There's no way we can predict when the wormhole will open? >**CHARACTER ONE:** We'll be lucky if we don't fry the induction capacitors! >**CHARACTER TWO:** I'll try to offset the power surge by rerouting to an auxiliary coil! ------ The glossed-over meaning is pretty clear: The characters don't know when a wormhole is going to open, and bad things are about to happen to their equipment. Anyone who actually paid attention to the exchange is going to wind up scratching their head, though, because very little of what was said actually made any sense. Writers who offer this variety of technobabble usually assume that their audience is too stupid to notice the issues. That's simply not the case, though, and bad technobabble can often turn viewers away from a piece of media, particularly if it's commonplace. Now, some writers occasionally trick themselves into thinking that they have enough real knowledge to make their technobabble believable... and the end result is often worse than the purely made-up stuff: ------ >**CHARACTER ONE:** Damn! That hacker just blew past my firewall! >**CHARACTER TWO:** Try to reinitialize your IP address and get him stuck in a BIOS loop! >**CHARACTER ONE:** No good! I'll have to flash his root to bypass the admin ports! >**CHARACTER TWO:** ... Okay, that just sounds naughty. ------ So, bad technobabble is a problem. How do we write *good* technobabble, then? Here are the rules: 1. Above all else, technobabble must be consistent with itself. 2. When referring to actual science or technology, those elements must be accurate. 3. If no accurate science or technology exists, *do not* fudge it. 4. Layman's explanations should *only* be offered by characters from whom it would be expected, and only to characters who would need it. 5. Technobabble *is not plot spackle.* I could go on for weeks about each of those elements – and in fact, that's not even a complete list – but the overall takeaway should be this: Technobabble of any quality is not a substitute for good writing, and offering good technobabble is more difficult than it sounds. It would be nice if more writers realized that. **TL;DR: I can babble for hours about technobabble.**
    — RamsesThePigeon



  4. Remaining single.
    — CaptainPirateJohn

  5. The ever-winding and completely useless field of WoW lore knowledge.
    — PM_ME_YOUR_WORRIES

  6. Harry Potter trivia
    — officedogsbody



  7. Drinking on an empty stomach and making a fool of myself.
    — Daimo

  8. Editing gaming videos with a toddler as the co-commentator for our channel. I have learned *tons* of tips/tricks to keep him engaged throughout the recording in my 7 months doing YouTube. It takes a special kind of person to cut down 2 hours of footage into 10 flawless minutes of a well behaved toddler. It has become even more of a niche task to be an expert in now that we have a 5 month old 60 pound puppy of doom trying to get on to the camera any way she can.
    — 2-CurvedHollow-Fangs

  9. Horses. I spent like 17 years being a full blown crazy horse lady, last spring I quit it all and escaped the madness. But you bet your ass I'm still a wealth of basically useless knowledge.
    — YesHunty



  10. Austrian Economics. Hopefully at least.
    — dingu-malingu