Confidence Isn’t Competence: Pool Industry Edition

Profanity does not make someone unprofessional. Confidently spreading bad information does.

In this intentionally abrasive episode of the Talking Pools Podcast, Rudy Stankowitz takes aim at the comment-section experts who diagnose complicated pool problems from one blurry photograph, defend outdated beliefs with “I’ve been doing this for 20 years,” and treat confidence as a substitute for evidence.

BREAKING INDUSTRY NEWS
July’s pool-industry news revealed a market undergoing a serious correction: as reported by Pentair, distributors are aggressively reducing excess equipment inventory; as reported by POOLCORP, essential maintenance and repair demand remains resilient despite weak discretionary spending; as first reported by Bloomberg, Leslie’s was considering strategic options—including a possible Chapter 11 filing—to address its debt; and as reported by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, years of corrosion, inadequate safeguards and nearly 14 million pounds of reactive chemicals contributed to the catastrophic Bio-Lab fire in Conyers. Adding to the industry shake-up, as reported by Pool Brain on August 5, Eric Knight stepped down as executive director of Watershape University to become Pool Brain’s head of education technology, overseeing automated chemical-dosing tools, guided training workflows and point-of-need education for pool professionals. Pool Brain announcement

The Confidently Wrong 

Rudy explains why experience only has value when it remains connected to research, why a correct result does not necessarily prove the explanation behind it, and why professionals must be willing to say, “I don’t know.” He also examines the limits of the Langelier Saturation Index, the risks of oversimplified chemistry advice, and the difference between handing someone an answer and teaching that person how to investigate a problem.

The pool industry does not need to lose its personality, clean up every four-letter word, or turn itself into a room full of corporate robots. It does need people who verify what they say, correct themselves when the evidence changes, and understand that other professionals and customers make real decisions based on the information they share.

The loudest person may get the most attention. The person who consistently does the work earns the trust.

In This Episode

• Why profanity is not a measure of professionalism
• The difference between an opinion and supportable information
• How bad pool chemistry advice can become expensive, dangerous, and public
• Why 20 years in the industry does not automatically equal 20 years of growth
• Experience repeated versus experience examined
• How improved research and instrumentation change what the industry understands
• Why correlation does not prove causation
• The danger of diagnosing pool problems without enough information
• What the Langelier Saturation Index does—and what it cannot tell you
• Why “I don’t know” can be the most professional answer available
• Correcting misinformation without surrendering credibility
• Combining field experience with current science
• Teaching critical thinking instead of creating dependence
• Why trust is worth more than comments, likes, and online attention

Key Takeaways

Experience should be a foundation, not a shield against better information. A professional gathers facts, considers competing explanations, understands the limits of a diagnosis, and changes course when the evidence demands it.

A real mentor does more than provide an answer. A mentor teaches someone what to test, what to rule out, what information matters, and how to reason through the next problem independently.

Profanity backed by accurate information is a voice. Profanity used to disguise ignorance is noise.

2026 Talking Pools Top Ten Pool Industry Mentors

Congratulations to:

• Brandon Reid
• Jeff Hamp
• Chris Kavanaugh
• Tim McDowell
• Lacey Davis
• Jerry Wallace
• John Poma
• Greg Beard
• Terry Tammanin
• Peter Wiederman

These honorees were selected by the hosts of the Talking Pools Podcast for the lasting difference they have made in the lives and careers of pool professionals.

Episode Sponsors 

• BlueRay XL — bluerayxl.com
• Service Industry News — serviceindustrynews.net
• Jack’s Magic — jacksmagic.com
• AquaStar Pool Products

Content Advisory

This episode contains strong language and intentionally abrasive humor.

Connect With Talking Pools

Subscribe to the Talking Pools Podcast wherever you listen, share this episode with a pool professional who values evidence over ego, and follow the show for straight talk, practical education, and pool-industry commentary without the corporate filter.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 1:05

Then you got Tom Hanks for his gone.

SPEAKER_05 1:08

Slow. Yes. Retarded. Maybe. But he turned the pants off Nixon. And he won a ping pong competition. Any retarded. And he was a goddamn war hero. You know any retarded war heroes? You and full retard, man. Never go full retard.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

The 2026 Top Ten Mentors, Brandon Reed, Jeff Hamp, Chris Kavanaugh, Tim McDowell, Lacey Davis, Jerry Wallace, John Poma, Greg Beard, Terry Tammanin, Peter Wiederman.

SPEAKER_06 1:42

Congratulations to the 2026 Talking Pools Podcast Top Ten Pool Industry Mentors. Your willingness to teach, mentor, encourage, and elevate others has made a lasting impact on the swimming pool industry.

SPEAKER_05 1:54

These honorees were selected by the hosts of the Talking Pools Podcast in recognition of the difference they have made in the lives and careers of pool professionals. The sponsors of the 2026 Talking Pools Podcast pool industry mentor recognition are Blu-ray XL, United Chemical, Lamotte Company, Revved Up Apparel, and Aquacomfort Water Group. Let me preface today's talk. That quote from Tropic Thunder, from RDJ. You can't say that nowadays, I guess. Welcome to Friday. I'm Rooney. This is the Talking Pools Podcast. Hope you're doing well. Thank you for stopping in to visit with us. Yes, again, it is weekend Eve. And I want to preface today's talk by saying this episode is going to be intentionally abrasive. Profanity included, not because profanity is the point, but because sanitizing the language would miss the culture I'm talking about. Hot routes, exhausted text, filthy filters, customer nonsense, and the comments section circus where confidence often shows up wearing clown makeup and carrying a test strip. Out in the rest of the world, a few people have allowed their brains to become a haunted bounce house full of bad shit. And as Tropic Thunder tried to warn us, some people insist on taking dumb confidence past the point of no return. Looking at social media, I sometimes wonder about certain pool people. I'm not gonna call them professionals. I don't care who jumps into a Facebook group and strings together four letter words, F bombs, and assorted expletives to blow off steam after a hard as fuck week working in triple digit heat, trying to keep every pool on their route from turning into Swamp Things bathtub, that's not what disqualifies somebody from being a professional. Profanity doesn't bother me. I speak fluent Long Island. Profanity is practically punctuation. If you spend ten hours opening filters that fucking smell like Satan's asshole, digging worms out of pump baskets, dragging fifty pound chemical buckets across backyards and listening to homeowners explain how the pool water tastes cloudy, you've earned the right to say a few bad words. Some of the smartest, most capable professionals I've ever met could make a drunken sailor clutch his pearls. And some of the dumbest people I've ever encountered speak politely, wear a branded polo shirt, and begin every sentence with all due respect. Language isn't the problem. The problem is whether the words are carrying truth or just dragging ignorance around in a dirty work boot.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Penter is warning that major pool industry channel partners are reducing equipment inventory much more aggressively than expected. As reported by Penter on July 28th, the company's pool segment was negatively affected by a significant inventory correction among major channel partners. Penter estimates that this de stocking could reduce its full year 2026 pool segment sales by approximately $250 million and pool segment income by approximately $155 million. Penter previously expected pool sales to increase by approximately 2-4%. The company now expects pool sales to decline by approximately 4-7%. Penter says distributors and other channel partners are right sizing inventory ahead of the 2027 pool season. In plain English, the distribution channel appears to have more pool equipment than current demand can support. This does not necessarily mean existing pools have stopped needing repairs. It suggests distributors overestimated demand, particularly for new construction, renovations, and discretionary equipment, and are now reducing what they carry. Pool Corp's latest results show that the maintenance and repair side of the industry remains comparatively stable. As reported by Pool Corp on July 23rd, second quarter net sales increased approximately 2% to $1.82 billion. The company said the increase reflected steady maintenance activity, inflationary pricing, and improved building material sales. Pool Corp also reported that discretionary consumer spending remained muted. Equipment sales increased approximately 3%, supported primarily by pricing and repair-related demand. Chemical sales declined approximately 2%, largely because of pricing. Pinter and Pool Corp may appear to be telling different stories, but both reports can be accurate. Pinter is describing equipment moving from the manufacturer into the distribution channel. Pool Corp is reporting products moving through distribution to dealers, service professionals, and customers. Existing pools still require pumps, filters, replacement parts, chemicals, and repairs. The greatest weakness appears to be in new pools, renovations, and equipment purchases homeowners can postpone. Leslie's Pool Supplies is reportedly considering strategic options to address its debt, including the possibility of seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. As reported by Bloomberg, on July 23, Leslie's was evaluating several options as it dealt with its debt load. As of the end of July, Leslie's had not announced that it had filed for bankruptcy. That distinction is important, considering Chapter 11 is not the same as filing for Chapter 11. The July report nevertheless raises serious questions for the pool industry. Leslie's is one of the country's largest specialty retailers of swimming pool chemicals, equipment, and supplies. A restructuring could result in additional store closure, changes to vendor relationships, and reduced availability of professional pool products in some markets. Independent pool stores and service companies could gain customers if Leslie's reduces its footprint. However, Amazon, home improvement chains, and other online retailers would also be positioned to capture that business. Pool professionals should not assume that Leslie's customers will automatically move to weekly service. If Leslie's restructures, the resulting vacuum could accelerate the movement of pool chemicals, equipment, and replacement parts into online retail. The most serious chemical manufacturing news from July came from Conyers, Georgia. As reported by the United States Chemical Safety Board on July 21st, the catastrophic September, 2024 biolab fire began after a corroded sprinkler system component failed. Water contacted chlorinated isocyonurates stored inside the warehouse, initiating a decomposition reaction and generating significant heat. Additional sprinkler heads then activated, putting more water onto reactive chemicals and escalating the event. As reported by the Chemical Safety Board, the sprinkler system had experienced significant corrosion and leaking since shortly after Biolab began storing chlorinated isocyze inurates in that warehouse in 2019. During a December 2023 inspection, more than 1,100 sprinkler heads were reportedly found to be corroded. The Chemical Safety Board also reported that approximately 14 million pounds of chemicals were stored at the facility, more than twice the quantity originally intended for the building. Materials inside the warehouse included chlorinated, isocyanates, cyanuric acid, aluminum sulfate, and sodium bromide. The resulting fire destroyed the warehouse, produced a massive toxic plume, forced residents to shelter in place, and close schools. Property damage was estimated at approximately $50.5 million. Biolab later ceased operations at the Conyers facility. The final report could affect far more than one manufacturer.

SPEAKER_05 9:20

Pool Brain has announced that it hired Eric Knight in a strategic move to accelerate delivery of game-changing education and software tools in the swimming pool industry. As part of this move, Eric has chosen to step down from his role as executive director of Watershape University to join Pool Brain as their new head of education technology. Among other things at Pool Brain, Eric Knight will oversee the advancement of fully automated water chemistry dosing, creating guided training workflows and interactive point of need educational modules. This marks a significant shift toward digital accessibility, aiming to provide pool professionals at every skill level with the resources they need to thrive in an increasingly tech-driven market. We're thrilled to welcome an industry legend like Eric Knight to the Pool Brain team. Eric's deep industry knowledge and experience will be invaluable as we continue working to provide pool companies with even more industry-first game-changing features. Said Adam Beach, founder and CEO of Pool Brain. Knight's transition to Pool Brain follows a 16-month tenure leading Water Shape University, where he oversaw the expansion of accredited courses, the development of a new comprehensive service track, and several courses, including an eight-hour water chemistry class, Service 2211, Essential Water Chemistry. Prior to WU, Eric was vice president at both Orenda and Hasa, where he created the Rule Your Pool podcast and led development of the Orenda calculator, which is integrated into most of the pool service software platforms widely used in the pool industry today. Bill Drakeley, co-founder of Watershape University, expressed support for the transition. And that's our breaking news for today. Why share this breaking news that Pool Brain hired Eric? Pool Brain has stepped up and has come on as a new sponsor with the Talking Pools podcast. It's not sponsoring one, but sponsoring all episodes across the week of the Talking Pools podcast. So we look forward to hearing more from them. Check them out. They've got good things going on. They got big things going on. Some of the platforms out there are great. Some of them I hate. This one, it's moving and shaking. That's exactly where we all need to be.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

God bless the pool proof. God bless the pool pro. Pull up on my detail, gate, down, test it out. PH Facts D S D I H. Run around the top metal to our balance on the clock green by car casting on the do it in the stack. Turn it's woman, boomer getting green flee.

SPEAKER_05 13:30

I've been getting Service Industry News since I first stepped into this business, and every time it landed, I did the same thing. Flip straight to the horror file. The weird installs, the absurd finds, the stuff only pool pros ever see. Then I'd go back and read the articles. Service Industry News is a twice-monthly trade publication for pool and spa service texts, 24 issues a year, emailed free to over 10,000 texts and available on their app. Every issue covers nationwide industry news and real technical content you actually will use. Get your free subscription at serviceindustry news.net. Again, that's serviceindustry news.net. Do it now. Some of these folks say the stupidest shit imaginable. And anyone here, this does not apply to the listeners of the Talking Pools podcast. You guys are top-notch and you know your shit. But somebody asks the question, and these people come charging into the comments like they were launched out of a cannon packed with confidence, fire grease, and unresolved childhood issues. They don't know the answer, but they know they have an answer. And in their minds, that's apparently the same thing. It isn't. Bad information is not just annoying. Chemistry ignorance can become expensive, dangerous, and public. While we're arguing over bullshit on Facebook, Conyers Georgia is sitting there as a reminder that pool chemistry is not comment section entertainment. When 14 million pounds of pool chemicals help to feed a catastrophic fire, bad information stops being funny and starts becoming a huge public safety problem. Now let me say, everyone that listens to this podcast is at a higher level. But we know those folks are out there, and there is a major difference between having an opinion and accurate information. They don't see it, but it's there. An opinion is what you think. Accurate information is what you can support. Those are not interchangeable. I've always done it this way, is not research. My old boss told me, a guy at SCP said, I saw somebody post it in another Facebook group is definitely not fucking research. That's not even hearsay anymore. That's hearsay that's been photocopied twelve times, left in the rain, run over by a truck, eaten by a goat, and shit back into a laminated chart, and then reposted as a colorful infographic. And once that infographic has a blue background, a picture of a swimming pool and three words written in capital letters, people treat it like it's the Ten Fucking Commandments, chiseled into a chlorine puck when all it really is is confidence dressed up as a source. Then somebody who actually understands the subject enters the conversation and says, Well, you know what, that's not quite how it works. Now we have a problem. Because the original commenter isn't interested in learning anything. They're interested in protecting their position. Now their entire identity is tied to whatever bullshit they typed with Cheeto dust on their fingers while sitting in their truck outside. They can't back down now. So they dig in. You show them chemistry. They show you confidence. You give them research. They give you an antidote. You explain what actually happened. They say, Well, I've been doing this for 20 years. Congratulations. You may have been wrong for 20 consecutive years. Longevity doesn't automatically create expertise. Sometimes it just gives bad information, two decades to breathe in the walls like mold. And profanity only makes the mold louder. Doing something for 20 years can make you incredibly knowledgeable if you spent those 20 years paying attention, asking questions, studying failures, updating your understanding, and correcting yourself. But if you repeated the same procedure every day without questioning it, you don't necessarily have 20 years of experience. You might have one year of experience repeated 20 times. That's not the same thing. Pool industry has changed. Our understanding of water chemistry, microbiology, filtration, corrosion, scaling, coatings, hydraulics, and disinfection has changed. Science did not freeze on the day you completed your first training class. It didn't hold a meeting and say, that's enough, everybody. Vinny from Long Island's got his certificate and now put the microscopes in a dumpster, shoot the textbooks, and shut down the laboratories. Science keeps moving. The instruments used to examine water, surfaces, microorganisms, and chemical reactions have improved drastically over the last 10, 20, and 30 years. At the same time, the business side of the industry is shifting too. And I think pool people are understanding what happens when a major retailer starts circling the drain. You're potentially about to lose one of the largest forces keeping professional pool car in front of the public through massive national advertising campaigns. And when that familiar retail option disappears, the floodgates don't suddenly open and send all those customers running to their neighborhood pool professional. A lot of them are going to look online first, where bad advice, miracle products, and have a bag comment section chemistry become even more dangerous. They open Amazon where common sense goes to die in a cardboard box next to a six-pack of pool potion and a flashlight shaped like a duck. Every pool owner already standing on the DIY fence is about to get shoved onto the other side with a test strip in one hand, a smartphone in the other, and same-day delivery heading toward the front porch. Did you think they were coming to you? That's adorable. Back to extreme algae, LSI, and chlorine dreams because that same pattern shows up everywhere. Here's the thread running through all of this. Experience matters, but only when it stays connected to evidence. The moment experience becomes a shield against new information, it stops being wisdom and starts being fossilized bullshit.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

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SPEAKER_08 20:05

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SPEAKER_07 20:39

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SPEAKER_06 20:48

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SPEAKER_07 20:59

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SPEAKER_03 21:35

Blu-ray all day.

SPEAKER_05 21:39

Researchers can now detect, measure, and observe things that were difficult or sometimes impossible to see when many of us first entered this industry. That means some of what we were originally taught was incomplete. That should excite you. New information doesn't erase your experience. It helps you understand your experience more accurately. It gives names to things you observed but couldn't explain. It lets you separate what actually caused a result from what happened to be standing nearby when the result occurred. That makes a difference because human beings are terrible at separating correlation from causation. We do something, something else happens. Then we decide that the first thing must have caused the second thing. We pour chemical A into a cloudy pool. The pool clears two days later. Therefore, chemical A cleared the pool. Maybe. Or maybe the filter ran continuously for 48 hours. Maybe the chlorine finally caught up with the demand. Maybe the particles settled. Maybe somebody cleaned the filter without telling you. Maybe the circulation improved. Maybe the water would have cleaned. Anyway. A result can be real while your explanation for the result is completely wrong. That is one of the most important things any professional can understand. Being right about what happened does not automatically mean you're right about why it happened. But social media doesn't reward that kind of careful thinking. Social media rewards certainty. The person who writes, there could be several contributing factors and we would need more information gets ignored. The person who writes, Drain it, bad TDS, gets 63 likes and an invitation to appear on a live stream. Apparently, punctuation, capital letters, and the confidence of someone shitting out flaming porcupines has replaced laboratory analysis. And if you add three red siren emojis, suddenly the bullshit looks urgent, which is how a bad guest gets dressed up as a public service. We have created an environment where the fastest answer often beats the correct answer. People don't read the question carefully. They don't ask for test results. They don't ask about pool volume, water temperature, surface type, circulation pattern, sanitizer, chemical history, weather source water, or anything else that might matter. They see one word they recognize and start typing Cloudy?

SPEAKER_04 24:15

Phosphates. Stain? Copper. Algae? Not enough chlorine. High chlorine demand? Ammonia. Paint peeling?

SPEAKER_05 24:27

Taylor Swift. Pump making noise? Fauci motor. How the fuck did you diagnose all that from one blurry photograph in a sentence written by somebody who spelled chlorine three different ways? That's not a diagnosis. That's theater. Sometimes guesses are correct, but a correct guess is not the same as a competent diagnosis. If I throw a wrench across the equipment pad and it accidentally tightens a union, that doesn't make me a mechanic, it makes me a lawsuit. Professionals collect information. Professionals consider competing explanations. Professionals understand that the obvious answer is not always the correct answer. For anyone newer to the term, the Langolir Saturation Index is a way to estimate whether water is likely to dissolve or deposit calcium carbonate. It is useful, but it answers a narrow question. Not every question that matters in a pool. People think the LSI is the answer to swimming pool water chemistry, that if the little number lands in the acceptable range, nothing else needs to be considered. That's bullshit. The LSI answers one narrow question. Whether the water is likely to precipitate or dissolve calcium carbonate under those conditions. That's it. It doesn't tell you whether the water is properly sanitized. It doesn't measure oxidation, algae, biofilm, phosphate, cyanuric acid management, combined chlorine sulfate damage, corrosion involving metals other than calcium carbonate, or whether your treatment protocol makes any practical friggin' sense. You can have a beautifully balanced LSI and still have an unsafe, algae-filled equipment destroying swimming pool that looks like Satan rinsed his balls off in a blender full of swamp meat. The LSI is a tool. It is not the whole damn toolbox, the truck, the map, the priest, and the exorcism kit. Professionals are willing to say three words that terrify social media experts. I don't know. There's no shame in saying I don't know. The smartest people I know say it regularly. The fool has an answer for everything. The expert has questions. What changed? What are the test results? What's the surface? What's the history? What was added? When was it added? What happened after that? Those questions aren't signs of weakness. They're the tools that keep us from confidently projectile vomiting bullshit across the internet when what we really need is patience, evidence, and a little professional humility. Nobody checks anything and then people pass it along until it starts sounding like fact. No, it isn't gossip wearing safety glasses. We live in a time when fact checking yourself has never been easier. You have a device in your pocket that can access technical documents, patents, scientific journals, manufacturer instructions, government publications, safety data sheets, university research, and more recorded knowledge than any previous generation could have possibly imagined. And what do some people use it for? To type you're an idiot under an answer they didn't understand. Amazing. Entire recorded history of human knowledge is sitting in your hand and you're using it to argue that Chlorine has whispering prophecies from the sewer. You don't need to become a research scientist. You need enough intellectual discipline to stop before you post and ask yourself, do I actually know this? How do I know it? When did I learn it? Has the information changed? Can I find a reliable source supporting it? Can you back up everything you say? That five-minute pause could save you from looking like an asshole whose confidence outran as evidence. And if you want to be appreciated for your contributions, stop trying to be the first person to answer. Be the person whose answer can be trusted. That reputation takes longer to build, but it comes from accuracy, not volume, titles, or performative expertise. And nobody's perfect. Nobody can literally never be wrong. But there is a tremendous difference between making an honest mistake after doing work and being recklessly wrong because you couldn't be bothered to look something up. When you discover you were wrong, correct it. Say, I was wrong. Here's the correct information. That single sentence will earn you more respect from intelligent people than a hundred defensive comments ever could, because being corrected is not humiliation. Remaining wrong after you've been shown better evidence is changing your mind is not weakness. Changing your mind when the evidence changes is exactly what rational adults are supposed to do. We need to stop acting as though consistency is more valuable than accuracy. If I believed something ten years ago and better evidence has since demonstrated that I was wrong, I should not continue repeating it merely to prove I'm consistent. That's not integrity. That's stubbornness within the corpse. You should be able to say, and this is what I understand now. That's growth. That's professionalism. That's how knowledge advances. Sometimes relearning is harder than learning. New information has to compete with the old story already living in your head. You may have taught that old story. Finding out it was wrong can hurt. I get it. I've had to rethink things. I've had to revisit explanations I accepted earlier in my career. I've had to look at new evidence and say, well shit, that changes things. That isn't failure. Failure would be seeing the evidence and refusing to change because my ego is more important than the truth. Your experience should be a foundation, not a prison where old assumptions sit in solitary confinement, licking the walls. Use what you've seen in the field, the thousands of pools you've maintained, the equipment failures, unusual water conditions, chemical reactions, damaged surfaces, frustrated customers, and expensive mistakes. But combine that experience with current information. Field experience and research should work hand in hand. We need both. The industry does not need more people who can memorize a chart and repeat it word for word. It needs people who can fucking think. And here's the beautiful part. If you want to become a superstar in the Facebook groups or on Instagram, the bar is not especially high. People ask the same fucking questions over and over again. My pH keeps rising. Why? My salt cell has white stuff on it. Why did the pool turn cloudy after I added this? What causes black algae? Can high chlorine damage the surface? Why is my filter pressure climbing? What is this stain? How do I lower cyanuric acid? What made the water green? So with a halfway decent memory, open mind, and willingness to verify information before typing, you can become unusually useful in those spaces. What a freaking accomplishment. In a comment section full of noise, you became useful. You can make a real contribution. The technician asking that repeated question may be seeing it for the first time. They may be standing in the backyard, exhausted, embarrassed, and worried that they're about to lose a customer. They don't need you to ridicule them. They need you to know what to test, what to rule out, what information matters, and how to think through the problem without turning every answer into a magic spell from the comments section swamp. That's how you help people. Not by dropping an answer from the sky like you're the pool industry's filthy mouthed oracle. Mouth is not the credential. The reasoning is. Teach them how to investigate. If somebody becomes permanently dependent on calling you for answers, you haven't necessarily mentored them. You may have simply trained them to outsource their thinking. A professional helps build capable people. None of this requires you to become polite, delicate, corporate, or sanitized. You can still use the word fuck. Just make sure you've earned the confidence behind it. Be as loud as you want after you've done your homework. Because profanity backed by accurate information is a style. It's an emphasis. It's a voice. Profanity used to disguise ignorance, well now that's just noise. Like a dumpster fire trying to give a TED talk. I'm not judging professionalism by vocabulary. I'm judging it by conduct. Do you verify what you say? Do you understand the limits of your knowledge? Do you update your thinking? Do you correct your mistakes? Do you explain your reasoning? Do you help other people become better at their work? That's the difference. A professional doesn't have to know everything. A professional has to respect the truth enough to not pretend. So the next time you see a question online and feel that irresistible urge to answer immediately, take a breath. Check what you think you know. Then answer. And if you don't know, say you don't know. You don't lose credibility by waiting. You lose credibility when the answer you fired off in 12 seconds is still sitting there six months later being repeated by 20 other people who assume you knew what the fuck you were talking about when really you didn't just We can raise the level of conversation in this industry without removing its personality. We don't have to become a bunch of sanitized corporate robots speaking exclusively in approved marketing phrases. We can still laugh at the insanity of maintaining pools and brutal heat for a customer who swears nobody used the pool whilst vape pen and a pair of underwear are floating in the deep end like evidence from a crime scene. But if we want to call ourselves professionals, then we need to act like professionals when accuracy matters. Not because we politically correct them, not because we're afraid of looking stupid, but because other people make decisions based on what we say. They spend money, they give advice to customers. Bad information has consequences. Sometimes a cloudy pool, sometimes thousands of dollars in damage, and sometimes real safety risks. So yeah, say fuck when the work, the heat, and the customers and the nonsense call for it. I don't care. That isn't what determines whether you're a professional. But before you start launching facts across social media with the force of a demon clearing his throat, make sure the facts deserve the force. Don't just say shit because it sounds strong and it's okay to not have anything to say. Learn shit, verify shit, and relearn shit when better evidence shows up. Because the loudest person in the Facebook group may get the most attention, but the person who does the work, checks the facts, admits what they don't know, and consistently provides information, that's the person people eventually learn to trust. And trust is worth a hell of a lot more than likes. That's all I got for this week. I'm Rudy Stankowitz. This is the Talking Pools podcast. Until next time, be good. Be safe.