The Secret
Hidden Holes in our Engineering Expertise

"…It works the same as assertions in System Verilog," he said. 

I quickly nodded my head -- maybe too quickly.  "Oh, OK, I see," I replied, almost before he had finished his sentence.

I wanted to give him confidence that the message was received so he would move on in the conversation.  If I looked puzzled, perplexed or confused - if I showed weakness or hesitation, he might linger in the lounge of this idea.  He might hang around here in the vicinity of trouble.  He might catch the scent of fear and decide to dally in the neighborhood of the current line of discussion - the one that was dangerously close – tenuously, terrifyingly, torturously close to the secret.

It was time to move him along.

"So, take me the rest of the way through the verification flow," I implored.

There was a slight pause before he complied. 

In that moment, my heart raced, my face flushed, my mouth went dry.  Had he felt it?  Was my secret compromised?  Was he merely being merciful in segueing the conversation smoothly to a more comfortable topic?  [more]