Nodding along when you’re lost is choosing to stay lost so you can look found.

The nod buys you thirty seconds and costs you the rest of the lesson. Everything after the part you missed is built on the part you missed, so the gap widens while you keep looking like you are following. By the time it becomes undeniable, the one question has grown into five, and asking is genuinely harder than it was.

Ask at the first thing you do not follow, even if the whole room seems ahead of you. Say which word or step lost you, since a specific question is easy to answer. Half the room is usually relieved, and the other half has already stopped listening.