# Being mystifying is a way to hedge Things that you can hedge with mystification * Trust - if you don’t trust someone to act with full understanding you will talk in abstractions [[Legibility enables action]] * Reputation - abstract statements tend to be less bloody, assertive, and unambiguous. Ambiguous statements are both mystifying and ambiguous so by being mystifying you can hedge saying something concrete that might be wrong. [[Making a thing legible puts it at risk of social destruction]] * Time - people are often vague about things that aren’t ready yet. For example talking about a project that’s just getting off the ground, people will talk about it like it’s a whole operation. This is not necessarily a malicious act but can be a defensive one because you could not want to destroy someone’s opinion of you. * Appearances - similar to time. * Understanding - if you don’t understand something it is hard to make it legible because [[Understanding a thing has to do with intuiting the affordances of a thing]] so you can’t go beyond a specific scope - the “veil” of the mystification. You either have the option of saying “I don’t know” or trying to keep the conversation at a higher level of abstraction. <!-- #evergreen --> [Web URL for this note](http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/Being+mystifying+is+a+way+to+hedge) [Comment on this note](http://via.hypothes.is/http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/Being+mystifying+is+a+way+to+hedge)