This spring, my Montreal cousin came to visit and we spent a lot of time talking. Our conversation landscape roamed an area as wide as the Northwest Territories. He knew more about some subjects than I did, and vice versa. We kinda fell into that trap of maybe feeling a little clueless or stupid about not knowing something the other did—until we both came to the realization, at the same time but in different rooms, that it’s okay to say, “I just don’t have enough knowledge about that.”
There are times you’re asked to cite your sources and you should; and other times it’s okay to tell folks to Google it. Conversationalists and debaters can be well-meaning people, intellectual bullies, or just people interested in a topic for only as long as the conversation lasts, and will forget about it soon after. Here’s how to know when to cite your sources, when to tell them to Google it, and how it’s simply okay to say, “I just don’t have enough knowledge about that.”
The ones who think they know everything are almost always the ones who know the least.
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