The differences between how my life has unfolded and how it compares to my expectation of how it would unfold in my teens and early twenties amazes me. Being a strong math student, I thought every problem had a singular, definitive solution and there was always a method which yielded said solution.
Fast forward a few years and it’s not hard to fathom how my expectations for success in the real world would be similar to success in solving a math problem.
Misinterpreting “I Don’t Know”
From my perspective, the most successful people would have all the right answers and know all the processes to solve any given real-world problem. He or she would never use the phrase “I don’t know” because that would indicate a lack of understanding and therefore weakness.
On that point, I was completely wrong. Initiating with “I don’t know” does not indicate a lack of understanding. In fact, it indicates a more complete understanding of a problem’s potential solutions. Unfortunately, the structure of modern education does not cater to this reality.
The Flaws of Modern Education
There are many areas of modern education which need fixing – antiquated teaching methods, teaching tenure, and a lack of funding among them. These issues are not going to be covered in this piece as there are plenty of other resources which do so in great depth. I will only write about my experiences inside this system and how they influenced my initial understanding of the “real world”.
My understanding at the end of my academic career was real-world problems could be solved in a similar manner to math problems. For any given math problem there was one or two possible methods. Follow said methods and you would arrive at the correct solution. Simple enough.
Now let’s examine another common problem type in the academic world – multiple choice questions. The nature of multiple-choice is there are only a few correct answers to a particular problem. If your answer is not one of those choices, you are undisputedly wrong.
Solving Problems in the “Real World”
Now, take a second to think about how much your academic career depended on solving these two kinds of problems and you should begin to see some troubling parallels to how you and most people go about solving problems in the “real world”.
This world is full of ambiguous problems which do not have a predetermined number of correct answers, nor a predetermined way to begin solving for them. Therefore, asking clarifying questions is paramount before even beginning to solve them. Our curriculums forgot this part.
It also doesn’t help we live in a society dominated by sweeping claims about complex problems. These sweeping claims are the math problems and multiple-choice questions of our post-academic world. They assume a lot and eliminate your need to research the labyrinth of other factors at play.
Furthermore, your inability to solve these problems in a simplistic manner or your reluctance to accept these claims at face value means you are weak. We may not be able to change this incorrect assessment at a societal level, but we can change our own circumstance and not jump to conclusions without filling the requisite knowledge gaps.
What Saying “I Don’t Know” Really Means
Believe it or not, stating “I don’t know” as an initial answer displays several high-quality traits. The first one it displays is curiosity. We discussed the need to develop curiosity in the Mastering Curiosity piece.
Being curious opens the door to exploring a subject further. It is often in this deeper explorations we find connections to other ideas – the building blocks of learning. Apart from better learning, showing curiosity provides the other party with an impactful impression of the type of person you are – a hard-working, genuine individual who is striving to be more.
“I don’t know” will also show people control and maturity. It shows control because you are acknowledging a gap in understanding that needs to be filled and you are willing to be patient in filling that gap. Often times this gap is not acknowledged because, as discussed earlier, acknowledging gaps in understanding is not a definitive answer, and the inability to give a definitive answer is a sign of weakness.
What to do after “I Don’t Know”
It’s important to acknowledge at this point simply answering “I don’t know” is not enough – it must be followed up with an effort to fill these knowledge gaps, which is where maturity comes in. Someone who is immature, like a seven-year-old, would answer “I don’t know” then do absolutely nothing to further his or her understanding. By that logic, there are a lot of seven-year-olds walking around in adult bodies. I hope you reading this piece means you are not one of them.
Compared to topics in previous pieces, this one seems overly simplistic. It is, but it is also extremely relevant to where we are today as a society. We live in an age where being successful, aka being able to solve problems, often means being loud and punchy. This reality leads to difficult concepts being chronically oversimplified and, as a result, ineffective solutions.
Furthermore, our ability to tackle abstract, challenging problems is what sets us apart from our primate ancestors. The only way to continue advancing is to continue acknowledging gaps in understanding, asking questions, and researching diligently to fill these gaps. The simplest, most primitive way to achieve these goals is to initiate with the phrase “I don’t know”…
Be More.
Become Polymathic.
Quote of the Week: “What we know is not much. What we don’t know is enormous.” – Pierre Simone Laplace