The question you think is stupid
is the one half the room needs.

There is a moment in most meetings where you lose the thread. Somebody used a word you do not know, or referred to a decision you have never heard of, and the room nodded.

So you let it go past. You will look it up later, or work it out, or get through the rest of the week without ever needing it.

Look round next time it happens. A fair number of the people who nodded are exactly where you are. The only reason nobody asks is that everybody assumed the nodding was real.

Ask it. Sorry, can you go back a step. It costs you four seconds of looking slow, and it is usually met with relief, because you have just done the thing three other people wanted to do.

The person who understands the most in any room is nearly always the one who asks the most.