I can be dumb and inexperienced sometimes; I try to ride those waves as long as I can.
I just had this problem two weeks ago: I was sitting in a meeting, listening to the flowdown from my supervisor, and I got really lost. What is an FSP? Why wasn’t it screwed correctly?
One week ago, I had the chance to talk to my coworkers, who were in that meeting, and I found out insider information:
They have no clue what she’s talking about either. We are in the same boat.
“Bud, bud just stay quiet.
It’s not that big of a deal.”
“I think to myself, if I ask this now,
Knowledge for free is a steal”
I had been listening to my supervisor for weeks on end about the FSP, as it grew from a small item to an action item that required most of her attention. I asked her what an FSP was, and it was pretty simple, but it gave me lots of context. She politely encouraged me to continue asking these questions. With this, I started to realize how little I knew about the work I was doing. As a chemical engineering major in college, I knew the basis of the plant, but the acronyms tripped me up. As I gained more respect in the workplace, I began to think I had an image to uphold.
As the meetings went on, it made sense to me how the FSP was malfunctioning, and soon I could talk a bit more with my supervisor about what she found out about the problem. It was pretty interesting and I was glad I asked.
The idea of continuing to question what I didn’t know made me think back to college: I saw the smart kids in class ask the most questions. It’s pretty counterintuitive, because I thought that they would know the most, especially on subjects that I considered to be either common knowledge or easy to get (for myself). Those kids are now pursuing very grown-up PhDs in chemical engineering all OVER this country (on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives!!! Ok sorry about this Guy Fieri reference).
I even saw it on my girlfriend’s Medium post a few weeks back.
Why is it so hard to gain knowledge?
Like I revealed above, I expected myself to be beyond asking questions — my ego said I knew more than I honestly did. To do this, my thought process was to fake it until I made it. This works for a lot of things, including public speaking, confidence, and being macho. However, I didn’t realize that faking knowing what an FSP was could hold me back. It stops the meeting, but it lets my supervisor realize that I am still not privy to the processes — I was not experienced in the field, and I processed only some of the steps to the plant that I saw on the tour.
In a nutshell, it’s hard to gain knowledge because it has barriers. Back in college, I could ask my textbook for help if I looked hard enough. My textbook wouldn’t sigh or look at me funny, or even chuckle. Too often, I feared my coworkers would hate that I asked so many questions and hold up the meeting when we could be goofing off. In fact, back in college, I used to hate talking about school outside of class because we have LIVES, ya know.
But here’s the thing about knowledge: it has interest. Just like a bond in the bank has interest, when my supervisor talks about the FSP now, I see the screws near the compressor crumbling, or imagine the FSP doing its job before spontaneously failing. I also have an image to build a story in my head.
Ever since, I made it my duty to ask one question per day. It has not ruined my image or ego yet, but I will keep you posted.
I am definitely not perfect at asking questions, especially when someone meaningful from our huge company comes by. I hope that by practicing these skills in lower risk situations, I will have the knowledge to talk to the bigwigs in our company, and have them wonder how I, the dumb guy, took their job.
