High school students are often so driven to prove that they’re worthy of admission to their dream colleges that they’re uncomfortable admitting when they don’t know the answer. It turns out kids aren’t the only ones with that reluctance. According to the Freakonomics guys’ new book, the three hardest words to say in the English language are, “I don’t know.” But the authors point out that if you can say those words, you’ll be a lot more successful in the long run.
In this podcast, one of the authors who teaches at a business school says:
…the MBA students are incredibly good at faking like they know the answer when they have no idea. But that’s so counterproductive. Think about it. It might keep your job for another week or another month, it might make people think you’re good. But that’s not the point. What fun is life if all you do is go through life trying to fake like you’re something that you’re not when, really, the goal is to be good and to improve and to learn and to make things better. And the only way to do that is to start by saying, ‘I don’t know.’”
Here are a few past posts on this topic:
One on why the smartest students never think they are
The former dean of admission at Princeton (Fred Hardagon) and the CEO of Amazon (Jeff Bezos) on the value of “I don’t know”
And some “I don’t know” advice from an MIT grad who interviews applicants for admission