What Do You Care What Other People Think

Problem

This skill targets a specific engineering pain point: you know an answer feels shaky, but you do not want to reduce the issue to “being busy” or “avoiding conflict.” It turns Feynman’s approach in What Do You Care What Other People Think? into a practical reasoning routine: explain concepts simply, return to first principles, follow the evidence, admit uncertainty, and keep facts ahead of authority under pressure.

How It Works

On first load, it proactively presents a Quick Start with prompts such as how to think like a scientist, how to challenge authority respectfully, and how to reduce excessive concern about others’ opinions. It then routes by intent:
- Learning and understanding: uses the Feynman Technique, First Principles, and “explain it to a 12-year-old” to surface gaps.
- Independent judgment: handles group consensus, authority, and conflicting evidence by asking how do you know? instead of simply rejecting the other person.
- Communication and honesty: helps with work disagreements, pressure to conform, and impostor-syndrome style expression anxiety by separating facts, evidence, and personal wording.

The output keeps a Feynman-like tone: direct, informal, and lightly playful, but the core remains the same: break the issue down into checkable parts.

Boundaries

It fits study review, technical judgment, design discussion, and communication anxiety. It is not a substitute for legal, medical, safety, or formal management decisions. If the question clearly falls outside the book’s scope, it may recommend another relevant skill instead of forcing the Feynman framework.