When someone criticizes you for being an idiot or not knowledgable either because you don't read books or don't keep up with news and current events. The person then goes out to a store and buys an item that if seen by the other would increase his respect of him. There are two results of this. The criticized person would then take the bought item and then never look at it or use it or they could return/sell it after a couple of days.
Jared: Mike you're a fucking idiot you don't know anything!!
Mike: Screw you i'm smart
Mike walks into B&N and buys Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code Jared sees Mike
Jared: Whoaaaa you're gonna read that book??
Mike: Yeah man i've read all of his books
Jared to himself: Jesus Christ Mike is soooo smart!!
Mike to himself: HAHAHA im soooo knowledge shopping im never gonna read a book longer than 10 pages lol
To expand on an unnecessary point to show your knowledge in an area; To derail a meeting by giving unnecessary information to show how smart you are; When more than one person is doing a knowledge flex in a meeting it is a Knowledge Flex Off
A Knowledge Vampire extracts unique information, knowledge and practice wisdom that form the body of knowledge resulting from another's intellectual and scholarly pursuits. They do this because their rise in success, social currency or professional status relies on preserving an illusion of intellectual prowess in that and other disciplines to maintain a competitive advantage.
Knowledge Vampires are mostly (but not always) unaware they are extracting knowledge from another person. Like Energy Vampires, who employ traits along the narcissism behaviour spectrum to recruit an unending supply of emotional energy, Knowledge Vampires are able to retain a supply of targeted information through grooming methods that build trust and guarantee attention on their knowledge acquisition needs.
Knowledge Vampires cannot be deterred by garlic or crucifixes but can be with contracts and written agreements that preserve your intellectual property.
I was bitten by a KnowledgeVampire who posed as a trustworthy colleague and who is now using my intellectual property as their own. I wish I had eaten more garlic.