blondie - Good point. There are so many clues that we receive without even being aware of it. Body language, transient facial expressions, hesitations etc etc. Most communication is non-verbal. Some people are better than others at picking up on them. There might be a gender bias there in favour of females but I'm not sure if there is data.
The other thing is that we are very good at noticing the things we get right and forgetting the many times we miss clues or make wrong assumptions — confirmation bias.
As soon as somebody says ‘quantum’ the conversation has bottomed-out. Quantum effects are what happen to particles so small a neuron or synapse looks like a planet by comparison.