When I was teaching Critical Thinking, it was the hardest thing to get my students to say, “I don’t know” if they didn’t know. It was even the right answer on ANY quiz if it were the truth. NO one wrote it, even if they actually didn’t know. It’s really hard to persuade people that “I don’t know” is the first step toward new knowledge. I’m very fond of the phrase myself. 🙂
I’ve become much more appreciative of the phrase over time. Willingness to learn, discover is so important. In my medical training, not knowing was viewed as shameful in that culture, even as the expectation that one, as a student, would know stuff that confounded the super specialists was patently absurd. Honesty and curiosity seem to be undervalued.
In academia, too. I tried to teach that only by recognizing what we don’t know can humans make progress. I dunno… I left that world feeling that the whole search for knowledge thing was a pretty low priority.
I’ve seen that in your world too. When I was 52 my right hip went south but my doc didn’t order x-rays of my hip because he KNEW people that young didn’t have osteoarthritis in their hip. If he’d said, “I don’t know. Let’s find out” I might not have had to wait 3 years. I would not have respected him one bit less if he’d said that. It might be a pride thing…
Curious Steph 
When I was teaching Critical Thinking, it was the hardest thing to get my students to say, “I don’t know” if they didn’t know. It was even the right answer on ANY quiz if it were the truth. NO one wrote it, even if they actually didn’t know. It’s really hard to persuade people that “I don’t know” is the first step toward new knowledge. I’m very fond of the phrase myself. 🙂
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I’ve become much more appreciative of the phrase over time. Willingness to learn, discover is so important. In my medical training, not knowing was viewed as shameful in that culture, even as the expectation that one, as a student, would know stuff that confounded the super specialists was patently absurd. Honesty and curiosity seem to be undervalued.
LikeLiked by 1 person
In academia, too. I tried to teach that only by recognizing what we don’t know can humans make progress. I dunno… I left that world feeling that the whole search for knowledge thing was a pretty low priority.
I’ve seen that in your world too. When I was 52 my right hip went south but my doc didn’t order x-rays of my hip because he KNEW people that young didn’t have osteoarthritis in their hip. If he’d said, “I don’t know. Let’s find out” I might not have had to wait 3 years. I would not have respected him one bit less if he’d said that. It might be a pride thing…
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and that you would give credit for “I don’t know” Fabulous!
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i was thinking about insistent salespersons, but i guess they’re just persistent.
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Could be either, I imagine, although I think it is more often persistence.
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Decisiveness is
the other side of the coin
that is certainty.
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