In this competitive culture, there is an expression that has acquired a particular meaning. Since we live in an environment driven by notions like "winners" and "losers," most people avoid using it because of its association with losing.
However, in my experience, this expression brings the opposite result. I learned that, far from placing me on the losing team, it makes me feel better and helps me overcome my shortcomings.
The expression is "I don't know."
As an academic, it's assumed that I may know enough to be conversant in a variety of topics — until I don't. Then my conversational skills collapse, I'm adrift, and I resort to the rhetorical life jacket of saying, "I don't know."
After my admission, the conversation turns into a kind of lecture that educates me about the topic, and, in the process, my conversation partner gets an ego boost.
I admit that the first time I said "I don't know" was in class. I admitted my ignorance to avoid teaching something incorrectly. My students were initially surprised, but then they realized that their professor, who writes "Ph.D." after his name in his syllabus, isn't really all that smart.
Yet I am smart enough to teach them.
Admitting my ignorance allowed others to teach me, and, as a result, I have been able to pass on that knowledge. Now I can brag that I know about the TV show "Stranger Things" and Hoka shoes.
I am Francisco Solares-Larrave, and this is my learned perspective.
Copy Edited by Eryn Lent
