Why staying quiet in meetings isn't a confidence problem — it's a latency one

A piece published on DEV Community by IT professional Parsa Jiravand argues that people who stay silent in meetings are not lacking confidence but are instead mentally drafting polished thoughts before speaking, a habit mismatched to the fast, informal pace of live discussion. Jiravand explains that frequent talkers think out loud, offloading reasoning into speech and self-correcting in real time, while quieter participants hold back until their idea is fully formed — often losing the moment. He notes that a good idea shared late carries a higher burden, as it interrupts the flow and must justify the cost of rewinding the group's attention. To close the gap, he suggests claiming the floor before a thought is complete, using low-content openers like 'Can I jump in on that?' to buy a few seconds of thinking time. Labelling contributions as half-formed or posing them as questions, he adds, removes the pressure of being definitive and still advances the conversation.