

“I didn't know that” is the best way to learn - Ben-G
http://blog.benjamin-encz.de/i-didnt-know-that-is-the-best-way-to-learn/

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strictnein
Really nice article. As he states, when confronted with an unknown topic
during a discussion/meeting, most techies fit into one of these categories:

* Nod and pretend you know about it

* Nod, pretend you know about it and go read about it afterwards

* Admit that you never heard about it and extract as much knowledge as possible from the conversation

Moving from the first one to the second one is easy, and you're kind of crazy
if you don't. Moving from the second to the third is hard, but once you do it,
you'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner. I've learned a ton by asking for
clarifications on things or asking another developer how he would use
[technology x]. People are typically very happy to share things they have
mastery of.

Simple way to start: in a meeting full of alphabet soup, ask for clarification
on some acronym. Takes a second, the response is also usually just a second or
two long, and there's undoubtedly others wondering the same thing. Once you've
opened yourself up to publicly admitting you don't know everything, it makes
asking future questions much easier.

