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The most popular academic theory (IIRC) is that "um" and "uh" are conversational placeholders that say, "don't talk, I'm not finished speaking yet". Which obviously serves no purpose in a monologue.

To me they just indicate lack of confidence on the part of the speaker.

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There's a correlation between speaking with confidence and bullshitting / corner cutting. Hard, nuanced questions require more thinking time to produce a nuanced answer. But a bullshitter will just confidently answer subtly wrong stuff. But they won't say "uh"! Is that really better?

Sure, that figures. Much of this is surely subjective.

The gifted ones seem to manage to intelligently babble for the beginning part while simultaneously forming the real answer.

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