On: Richard Feynman: Do We Live in A Cargo Cult Societ...

[natep]

There's one paragraph I don't get:

    "I tried to find a principle for discovering more of these kinds of things, and came up with the following system. Any time you find yourself in a conversation at a cocktail party in which you do not feel uncomfortable that the hostess might come around and say, "Why are you fellows talking shop?" or that your wife will come around and say "Why are you flirting again?"--then you can be sure you are talking about something about which nobody knows anything."

I've been trying figure out what he meant, so I can apply the same method.

[thefool → natep]

He meant that if you ever catch yourself in a conversation where no one knows anything about the subject matter, you should end the conversation.

[duncanj → thefool]

I think he's saying that certain topics allow everyone to participate because no one knows anything. If specialists were in the conversation, it would become shop talk.