Have you ever been too scared to ask a question about something you didn’t know? Have you ever sat in a circle and felt like the only person who didn’t know what people were talking about? Have you ever been too worried to just admit that you don’t know? I’m betting we’ve all been there — too scared that we’ll look foolish, stupid and embarrass ourselves.
Sitting silent in frustrating ignorance may save face but we are just hurting ourselves in the long run. Walking away from a conversation as ignorant as we started is more foolish than asking the question in the first place! Somewhere along the line, we lost the social permission to be as inquisitive as we were in school, when we weren’t expected to know everything about everything. Somewhere along the line, we became intellectually insecure.
Being intellectually insecure is to be scared of looking stupid because of what you don’t know and to not be confident enough in what you do know.
Being intellectually insecure is to be scared of looking stupid because of what you don’t know and to not be confident enough in what you do know. Personally, I know hardly anything about geography (I thought Jamaica was an island off ofAfrica, I couldn’t point to many countries on a map and I thought Cornwall was somewhere in the mid-west coast of England — I know, absolutely tragic!) and I’m not afraid to admit it. At one point, I would never have mentioned my terrible knowledge but all that did was ensure I wouldn’t learn any better. Sure, people may laugh about it for a minute but I walk away with the capacity to not make the same mistake again. Nowadays, each time someone is talking about a place, I’m learning to ask where it is because that way I’ll build a better foundation of my knowledge.
It’s so easy to find yourself nodding along to a conversation about politics, the economy or a hundred other subjects that you don’t know much about. Take a moment to stop and just ask what the hell they’re on about, because passing up the opportunity to lead only leaves you less intelligent in the long run.
If you don’t know — just ask.
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