Knowing

Some things I don't understand. 

Actually, I guess it’s more than some. The truth is, I wander through life in a state of perpetual amazement and bewilderment about any number of things. 

We have a project going on here that requires an electrical line to be buried for 195 feet. The company doing the work sent out a boring machine instead of tearing up our yard with a trench. Two guys showed up with a van and a pickup pulling a trailer full of stuff. We chatted for a bit and then I left for a meeting. I got home a couple hours later, and they were gone, but there were grey pipes poking out of the ground where they started and where they were supposed to end up. Other than that, nothing. I've had gophers make more of a mess. That night I watched a couple of videos on YouTube that were supposed to explain everything to me, but I still don't understand. 

Honestly, I'm okay with that.  

Something I've always found amusing is how some really smart people have a problem admitting any level of ignorance. 

Senators, successful businessmen, doctors - all can have an issue with ignorance. To admit they don't know something seems to be a threat to their whole world view. I don't know if it's just ego, or if they're so used to being the smartest person in the room, they can't wrap their heads around any evidence to the contrary. Whatever the reason, the attitude seems to be percolating through all of society. I cannot think of a time in my life when there has been so much suspicion, even contempt, for people who have spent a lifetime learning things that the rest of us are too busy or too bored to learn. 

I think it's a problem. We live in a complicated world. I've fixed a lot of things in my life, but when I look at a modern tractor and think of the depth of knowledge and experience it takes to repair one of them I just shudder. I don't fully understand how international trade functions, let alone the “cloud” where all my data is stored. I couldn't whip up a solar cell, analyze my Medicare supplements or develop a flu vaccine. I need to - really need to - rely on the expertise of other people. 

I'm not saying that's easy. I hate depending on other people. I've seen too many experts make too many mistakes to be fully comfortable with blithely turning over my life to them. But there's no choice – relying on common sense will take you only so far, plus, let's be honest, common sense is not all that common. 

I think there are two lessons here. First, it’s perfectly all right to admit not knowing something. If your day job is fixing tires or managing a hedge fund, you shouldn't have a problem admitting you know nothing about beekeeping or setting up a router. Just as big a problem is knowing when the person spouting off is actually an expert, or just a loudmouth. Many years ago, I read a book by Robert Parker where he described a character as, “...often wrong but never unsure.” For some reason those lines come into my head more and more often. 

We live in an amazing, complicated world, where so much is going on that we don't understand and there is so much change going on. That's not going to go away, and I'm okay with that. I like the wonders of the internet, I like being able to buy a chocolate croissant or decent ramen close to home, and I'm very fond of the way modern medicine has kept me and my loved ones alive. I'm old enough to remember the good old days, and they weren't all that good. Trust the experts that make modern life possible, but before you trust someone who tells you they have ALL the answers, maybe, just maybe, give it a think. 

Copyright 2024 Brent Olson