There's a Japanese saying I came across recently while reading the book Tokyo Vice: "To ask a question is a shame for a moment. Not to ask the question is a sh

There's a Japanese saying I came across recently while reading the book Tokyo Vice: "To ask a question is a shame for a moment. Not to ask the question is a shame for your whole life." (The author of the book, a newspaper reporter covering crime and the Yakuza, gets very far in his career by asking "dumb" questions.)