All affectation is the vain and ridiculous attempt of poverty to appear rich.

Putting on airs advertises the exact lack it is meant to cover. The borrowed vocabulary, the exaggerated ease, the opinion held loudly and recently acquired: each one signals that something is thin underneath, and other people pick it up faster than the person performing believes. Nobody with plenty of a thing feels the need to demonstrate it.

Find where you have been performing lately, and try one conversation without it. Say you do not know when you do not know, and notice that it costs you far less standing than the performance was buying.