I quite often see people faking to know something they obviously don't. To be honest, I am sometimes tempted to fake it too.
When looking back, I think that being honest about what I don't know is one of the things that helped me the most in my learning journey.
So, in this post, we will explore the importance of recognizing things that we don't know to be able to learn and improve ourselves.
The problem with faking to know
When I face something I don't know, I usually find two reasons that might make me want to ignore my lack of knowledge :
- It helps avoid hurting my ego. Which is even more tempting when I think that these are things that I should know. Like things that are in my area of expertise.
- It feels comfortable to fake knowing when in public. Knowledge is something that is often valued. Showing our lack of knowledge can be intimidating because it makes us vulnerable to the judgement of others.
But there is a big problem with looking away from things we don't know : If we don't know what we don't know, we cannot learn it.
Finding out and keeping track of things we don't know
To be able to learn, we need to be conscious of the things that we don't know and wish to know about.
This is where curiosity is our best asset. Being curious can help us find topics we don't know. Either by reading blog posts, listening to podcasts, reading books or talking to other people. It can even be by scrolling social medias if the timeline is not filled with pictures of cats and food.
And whenever we encounter something that we don't know and wish to learn about, we can write it down. We will then be able to find a topic we want to learn about the next time we feel curious.
Taking notes to challenge our understanding
One thing that helped me a lot to figure out if I really understand a topic is taking notes.
When we take notes and rephrase the information using our own words, it has the power to challenge our understanding.
We often hear that we don't really know something until we can explain it to someone who doesn't know it. Taking notes has a similar effect. Except we can do it on our own. Which is nice for the people to whom we would have wanted to explain something they are not interested in, just for the sake of learning.
And taking notes has the side effect of making the information accessible later, when we might have forgotten it. Even making it searchable when we need it. This side effect is quite nice to have.
Asking when we don't know
This might be the most uncomfortable thing to do in discussions: recognizing that we don't know the thing that is being discussed and ask for an explanation.
By doing so, we put ourselves out there and make our lack of knowledge on the topic obvious. This can be terrifying, especially when we are not intimate enough with the people we are talking to.
But, in my opinion, it is important to ask questions when we don't know. It is a great way to learn and show our interest in the topic. And most people like to help others and will be happy to explain it to us.
It can even help others that would not know either and who are too scared to ask. When asking questions, it's not rare that people thank us later for asking because they did not know either.
And consequences are not that bad
I'm convinced that recognizing that we don't know something makes us more approachable. I think people are more comfortable with us when we show that we are human. And no human is a perfect being that knows everything and does everything right.
Finally, I think it is even more important for leaders to show when we don't know. It's might be even harder because we can be used to be the person who help others. But it gives the example and makes it easier for others to do the same. It shows that it's OK to not know and ask questions.