3 ms·

It's such a shame when people aren't comfortable admitting they don't know something. Often it's way more valuable to know that, and safer in many cases too!

lesuorac 4y ago
Safer when? Guessing the right answer in school was always acceptable. Just sitting silently always made the teacher upset. People are trained for ~10 years to just guess/make stuff up when they don't know.
- BeetleB 4y ago
  > Guessing the right answer in school was always acceptable. Just sitting silently always made the teacher upset. Yes. This was problematic. I remember my first semester in grad school taking a (for me) tough course. On a midterm, I didn't know how to answer a question, and I thought it was disrespectful to pretend to solve the problem (random relevant equations I could think of) and waste the grader's time with it. The professor called me into his office and said "Look, I can't give you points if you write nothing. Next time, write something and you'll probably get some partial credit."
- thfuran 4y ago
  >Safer when? Certainly any time where the work output could potentially harm someone if it's incorrect. Arguably also any time where producing incorrect output or wasting a bunch of time could adversely impact your or a colleague's career. All in all, rather often.
- yencabulator 4y ago
  My high school math teacher explicitly designed exams where answers were brief if you recognized the shape of the problem, but you could also just start doing the math and arrive at the answer about 1 page later. It was obvious who understood the problem and who was just stabbing in the dark. My university CS intro course labs always had an extra "and see if you can do it in O(log n) instead" or such bonus question. The bonus part always "impossible" if you didn't get that a-ha moment. I think you had bad teachers.. (which is unfortunately much too common)
bauble 4y ago
Usually, people asking me questions don't want to hear "I don't know.". They want me to dedicate myself to solving their issue.
- nmstoker 4y ago
  Unless there's something particularly special going on, presumably you could tell them the truth as it is initially (ie you don't know at that point) and not have that jeopardise dedicating yourself to solving their issue as soon as possible, when you'll give them a final answer.
- yencabulator 4y ago
  "I'll find that out for you"

lesuorac 4y ago

Safer when? Guessing the right answer in school was always acceptable. Just sitting silently always made the teacher upset. People are trained for ~10 years to just guess/make stuff up when they don't know.

BeetleB 4y ago
> Guessing the right answer in school was always acceptable. Just sitting silently always made the teacher upset. Yes. This was problematic. I remember my first semester in grad school taking a (for me) tough course. On a midterm, I didn't know how to answer a question, and I thought it was disrespectful to pretend to solve the problem (random relevant equations I could think of) and waste the grader's time with it. The professor called me into his office and said "Look, I can't give you points if you write nothing. Next time, write something and you'll probably get some partial credit."
thfuran 4y ago
>Safer when? Certainly any time where the work output could potentially harm someone if it's incorrect. Arguably also any time where producing incorrect output or wasting a bunch of time could adversely impact your or a colleague's career. All in all, rather often.
yencabulator 4y ago
My high school math teacher explicitly designed exams where answers were brief if you recognized the shape of the problem, but you could also just start doing the math and arrive at the answer about 1 page later. It was obvious who understood the problem and who was just stabbing in the dark. My university CS intro course labs always had an extra "and see if you can do it in O(log n) instead" or such bonus question. The bonus part always "impossible" if you didn't get that a-ha moment. I think you had bad teachers.. (which is unfortunately much too common)

bauble 4y ago

Usually, people asking me questions don't want to hear "I don't know.". They want me to dedicate myself to solving their issue.

nmstoker 4y ago
Unless there's something particularly special going on, presumably you could tell them the truth as it is initially (ie you don't know at that point) and not have that jeopardise dedicating yourself to solving their issue as soon as possible, when you'll give them a final answer.
yencabulator 4y ago
"I'll find that out for you"