
When Did it Became Impossible to Say, ‘I Don’t Know’? - paulpauper
https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/when-did-it-became-impossible-to-say-i-dont-know
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JohnJamesRambo
I say I don’t know all the time. It’s the best answer when you don’t know.

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qrbLPHiKpiux
The people who say "I don't know" are some of the brightest and smartest I
know. It shows you're willing to learn, humble, and not pompous and elite.

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replyguy912
I agree but but I think it should be followed by some indication of the
strategy or initiative that you'll use to get in the know:

"I don't know - I need some time to research the effect of XYZ on our
prooposed solution. Let's get together tomorrow."

"I don't know. Let me ask Bill from the platform team if he has any
suggestions and then get back to you."

etc.

Weak performers use "I don't know (how to/where to/ etc)" as an excuse to give
up; strong performers use it as an opportunity to learn without bucking
responsibility.

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roenxi
Humans are tragically limited in some literal and obvious ways. For example,
most information comes in through 2 very local light senors and a pair of
ears, and is then processed by a gooey grey lump that is very, very biased
towards the present.

Compare that to the problems that require leadership, which often span large
areas of both time and space. Obviously, no human is up to the challenge of
comprehending the actual challenge.

A leader who actually believes they understand what is happening is
delusional. Not necessarily in a bad way, they just aren't engaging with the
reality of the situation. They will hopefully still get buoyed up by their
other skills and the work of the people around them, and with a little luck
and skill might have a grasp on a couple of the key drivers of a given
situation. The true state of things isn't going to stop leaders _pretending_
they have an answer to everything, because leaders are chosen by the people
and people prefer to be told that the situation is easy and under control than
the messy reality that requires caution, risk management and contingency
planning.

I've yet to see the public admit en-mass that they are bad at picking leaders,
but they clearly have no idea how to. If we had a better system for choosing
political leaders we'd certainly see it used.

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zenlot
Looks like it's common thing in interviews too. Even recruiters will tell you:
"never say you don't know the answer, try...". Not sure about the others, but
if I don't know something I go and do my reading/digging in, instead of trying
to guess it or bluff it, not sure why it has to be different in any other
situations.

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namelosw
When I interview other people, I usually ask one question that is really hard
for the candidate. I don't expect an answer, I just expect the candidate would
give an honest answer.

Then I'm always surprised there are so many people willing to take some random
guess and stretch it hard, until some Socratic questioning let them falls into
paradox.

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ryanjshaw
I can think of at least two reasons why. The first is that the candidate
doesn't realise they are hitting their intellectual limits. The second is that
the candidate _does_ realise the question is difficult, but doesn't know if
_you_ know the question is difficult.

As a result, the second type of candidate has to decide whether to enter into
a debate with the interviewer (and risk losing the job opportunity if the
interviewer turns out to be ignorant), or try to appease them with a best-
guess answer. If the candidate is desperate for a job, they might choose the
appeasement option.

You have no way of knowing if your candidate falls into the first or second
bucket because interviews involve power asymmetry. In my opinion, this type of
questioning is counterproductive -- you're looking for honest people by being
dishonest.

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s_m_t
Another reason: People might not necessarily know what they don't know right
off the top of their head. So if you ask them something and they don't know
the answer, they won't even necessarily know whether they don't know the
answer because it is an embarrassing gap in their knowledge or if the question
is hard. The only thing they might know for sure is that they don't know the
answer.

Honestly, trying to bullshit your way towards an answer isn't a bad strategy
in this circumstance.

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bigred100
So obviously bluffing is still the fault of the guy doing it, but I feel like
the non leaders play some role in it. In sort of competitive environments
where the people aren’t very informed and don’t seem to have high moral
standards, sometimes I’ll see random employees who want to increase their
status barrage specialists with minute and usually largely irrelevant
questions and then try to paint the specialist as stupid or dishonest if he
doesn’t answer all of them. So it becomes important to BS people to get them
to shut up. Many seem to substitute this for competence, leading to a downward
hellspiral

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xrd
It's funny, when I was a manager at a big tech company I did fear saying "I
don't know." I always assumed saying that enough would have people doubt my
competence.

When I was at the same company as an engineer, I would see my managers make up
shit on the spot and I knew they were full of it. And, I doubted their
competence.

I really wish someone could assess the long term implications of saying I
don't know and not saying it. I don't know which way it would pan out.

I suspect there might be a short term gain in pretending you know something
but a long term problem when you pretend. And if you are truthful, the short
term benefits might be worse but the long term benefits might go exponential.

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cabaalis
It's not impossible, it's just impossible for politicians. It's because
they're essentially tricking their way in, especially during primary seasons.
"I don't know" is a very honest statement, and doesn't go well for trickery.

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replyguy912
You're right; there are a number of quality character traits (like this one)
that disqualify a person from ever achieving elected office. I fear the list
grows longer each day.

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vbuwivbiu
because in the workplace lack of trust means we all have to pretend we know
when we don't for fear of looking weak

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tonyedgecombe
It's exactly the same for politicians, we all know what the headlines would be
the next day if the guy in the video had responded honestly.

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gumby
I didn’t think butegig’s first answer was bloviation, it was correct, and
challenges the default assumption.

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wool_gather
The anecdote in the article was about Beto O'Rourke, not Pete Buttigieg.

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sys_64738
You can say you’re not sure but will follow up when you have the requisite
info.

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nice_title
When did _it_ [become] impossible to say 'I don't know'?

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dang
Fixed now. Thanks.

