Some years ago my cousin took me along to a party. His friend who was throwing the party was very well read, and there was a large bookshelf lining one wall of his apartment.
At some point, several beers into the evening, a guy at the party and I started to get into a debate about computer graphics. I was describing how a particular procedural texture algorithm works, and this guy was saying I had it wrong.
It was all a bit awkward, because I was describing my own algorithm, but I could think of no graceful way for me to say that. Until, that is, I spotted a book on the shelf that I had co-authored.
I casually pulled the book off the shelf. “Look,” I said, turning to the relevant page. “you can see right here how the algorithm works.” It definitely helped my argument that my name was on the cover of the book.
Every once in a while you get lucky.