What to do when nothing makes sense?

In a conversation, Nod and smile and give backchannel responses that make it seem like I do, and wait until the person speaking says something I do understand, to give context to everything before it, and then make an educated guess to what they were talking about.

In IT, look up every word in the man page I don't understand, and then every word in the definitions of those words, and so on, until I understand the basics of the systems and protocols underlying what I am working on, and then build back up from there.

In life, play something like a holy fool [0], and accept that things don't need to make sense for me to be okay.[1] Also that the sense that things don't make sense, could just be a feeling made by trying to cling to a framework of knowledge that is showing its limitations, and needs to be expanded or left behind. Also know that my sleep, diet, physical activity, all play a big role in my sense of mental clarity, and try to keep to good habits.

As a human being, get away from other human beings, into someplace green and let direct observation of the billions of years in the making natural world, and my self as a natural thing make all the sense that is needed.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foolishness_for_Christ#:~:text.... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceptance_and_commitment_ther...

Take a look at the attention manifesto:

https://twitter.com/grantdraws/status/1278349092733755392/ph...

https://twitter.com/grantdraws/status/1278349092733755392/ph...

https://twitter.com/grantdraws/status/1278349092733755392/ph...

Hope it helps

Accept the nonsense.

Then stop doing anything which makes you unhappy and seek that which brings you joy.

Drink orange juice, the vitamin boost and sugar will help your cognition.

3. Hide steps one and two.

In an actual answer:

For hard science, do as totetsu said for IT. start where you don't understand, look up words, and work backwards until you have enough of a basis to understand.

For anything else, I'm afraid I'm not much help.

In what context?

Beats me.