I'm an imposter, you're an imposter, we're all imposters together

A chance run-in with a member of my committee:

He says, "Hey, have you read [new book in the library]? I think it might be useful for your thesis."

I hear, "Are you actually doing any work lately?"

True answer, "Right now I'm trying not to read anything that might make me feel stupid."

My actual reply, "Yes, I heard about it and I plan to read it. But it's in [X framework], which I'm not very familiar with, so it's going to be hard going."

He says, "Have you thought about learning [X framework]? Do you think it would be a helpful perspective for your topic?"

I hear, "This theory is important! Why don't you already understand it?"

True answer, "It's hard. I don't like it."

My actual reply, "Maybe... I did think about using it, but I wasn't sure the payoff would be worth the time spent learning a whole new theoretical framework."

He says, "What framework are you using?"

I hear, "You DO HAVE a framework, don't you?"

True answer: "I kind of scrounged one up on the basis of whatever overlap there is between the framework I used for my MA and the framework my supervisor uses, then removed any theoretical stuff that seemed too hard."

I reply, "I'm kind of basing it on [Y framework], but trying to make it accessible to people working in different theories." (People like YOU, for instance).

He answers, "Is that the same framework as [main supervisor]'s?"

I hear, "Did you just make that up?"

True answer, "Yes, I just made it up."

I reply, "Not really. But there's enough in common between the two that we are doing fine."

And his final comment, showing he saw through the entire thing: "You know, sometimes you just have to write in whatever framework you are most comfortable with and then make up some plausible sounding justifications to put in the introduction."