I used to think that saying "I don't know" meant I was stupid. One day when speaking with a talented tech leader, seemingly at the top of his game, I asked him if he knew about something I did (I forgot what that was now.)
He said, "hmm, I don't know about that".
It was a revelation. What? He didn't know? And most amazingly to me, he admitted it and was quite calm and ok with it!
This presented a new possibility to me. It was ok for smart people to say they didn't know things! It was ok to be smart and not know things!
These days, saying "I don't know" is a relief. Being ok with me where I'm at.
Yeah, I don't know!!
And I'm happy to genuinely learn about it if it's of interest to me.
Do you acknowledge where you are? How does it feel when you do? How does it feel when you don't?
It's so common to consider smart people as people who know about everything! But being smart is not a thing of how much you know about lots of topic, but about how you use all what you really know to develope/create something new. You're right! Telling that "you don't know something" can be positive because you can ask for information about it and learn something new :)
Yes that's true! And I used to believe that to be successful, you had to be really smart and thus know everything. I know realize that that's impossible LOL but I did believe it unconsciously for many many years and it caused me great anxiety at work :O)
I used to believe that people with lenses and gray-haired were supposed to be really smart hahahaha! Don't feel anxious about it, you'll learn a lot through the pass of time and experiences. If you feel you don't know something, just remember there's a lot of ignorant people being famous, even presidents of a country ...
I agree. Saying "I don't know" has become a relief statement for me lately. For so long always feeling like I had to have the answers to everything asked. It feels good to me to say "I don't know"!
Yes to that! Thank you @nettie57!! I am in "relieved" land and it's lovely here :)