The best advice I can give writers when I don’t know the answer to their Q is to tell them I don’t know the answer to their Q.

Which is also the best advice I can give you about giving advice: admit when you don’t know ___. Then when you *do* know something, it’ll carry weight.

If I get a question like “what’s the best path to become a showrunner?” I’ll have a basic idea, but I’m not in that ecosphere because I’ve never been a staff writer or worked on a show.

Likewise—and behold, the meaty subtweet part of this thread—

—if you don’t work in development where you’re reading hundreds and hundreds of scripts from “new” writers a year, it’s okay to admit you’re not sure if X writer is good or great or not ready.

Just because someone is *in* the industry doesn’t make them an expert on every facet of the industry.

In fact I’ve never met such a person. If I had I’d suspect they were a robot or some sort of AI. Which might make for a good 80s throwback movie... Someone write that.