Admit that you don't know things - and then learn them

If you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters - don't wish to seem knowledgeable. And if some regard you as important, distrust yourself" - Epictetus, Enchiridion, 13a

The human ego finds it hard to admit that there are things we don't know. It's quite obvious you can't be on top of everything.

Unfortunately, in order to not look 'dumb' we prefer to give an impression that we know things as opposed to learning them.

This can backfire massively:

If you end up talking to really smart people, you might succeed in giving a first impression that you know everything. The truth is, you'll eventually get caught out when you work with them.

How do you avoid this scenario?

🤷‍♂️ The first would be to acknowledge that you don't know.

📚 The second would be to volunteer to learn, either from the person or read the fundamentals.

This of course is subject to what the topic is and how much you can leverage from it in the long run. Otherwise a simple "I don't know" will suffice. In order to learn, we can do two things:

#1 Be ready to Unlearn

If you've made it to a point in your life, there is a tendency to ignore the need to unlearn. Why? because there is a sunk cost.

You need to be willing to unlearn, walk backwards and work on the fundamentals.

Avoid jargons because that only comes off as knowledgeable but doesn't help in the practical sense of things. Wrap up the ego, say "I don't know" and then work on learning what you lack.

#2 Keep the long term in mind

Remember that this is for the long term. Foundational knowledge isn't built on instant gratification. Multiple iterations will be required before you can reach the ability to explain it in 5 different ways to 5 different people.

It is this approach that builds the mental models you need to have a sustainable sense of leverage, accountability and specific knowledge.

“Knowledge is a skyscraper. You can take a shortcut with a fragile foundation of memorization, or build slowly upon a steel frame of understanding.” ― Naval Ravikant