know what you don't know

the overclaiming questionnaire 🎙️

i watched a public interview earlier today where two guys asked a fan leaving a basketball stadium what he thought of [completely made up player name’s] performance. that player didn’t exist, but the fan ended up saying a lot of legit-sounding rubbish about different plays made.

straight larp - and it says a lot about how we operate. we’re more attuned to upkeeping our air of intelligence and lying instead of just opening up for a learning moment.

a good mental experiment would be running that interview in your head any time someone asks you about something you’re unfamiliar with. it could literally not exist and you’d be making a fool out of yourself. that obviously shouldn’t be the driving reason for admitting what you don’t know, but it’s a good start to getting into the habit.

it’s tempting to start bs-ing when asked an unfamiliar question. we’re pretty much trained to do this through school. we’re better off just writing something down.

i had a 3rd-grade teacher who actually incentivized intentionally leaving a question blank on our math tests. if we got a problem wrong, it would be -1, whereas a blank question would be 0. idk if that’s necessarily the right structure for elementary school children, but it definitely forced me to be acutely aware of what i did and didn’t know.

i wrote my answers with confidence, and admitted to my gaps when i was unsure.

it’s often better to admit you don’t actually know something - it’s vulnerable and makes you more human. people want to interact with others like puzzle pieces fitting together, not so much an immovable, all-knowing force. it’s like a whole square piece trying to meet an intricate piece with grooves. not possible. it’s charming to exchange insights and information back and forth excitedly.

there isn’t a single person who knows everything, so why bother trying to seem like you’re the exception?

a crucial part of self-awareness comes from knowing your own gaps. it honestly makes for more productive learning. convincing yourself you know things you don’t just brews a bigger problem later down the road. don’t gaslight yourself with knowledge or skills you don’t have.

i was scoping out my summer internship based on what i don’t yet know or feel confident in applying. it was a good look inward that helped me shape 3 projects i’d like to own while at browserbase in sf over the summer. otherwise, i’d just go along with the flow of the day-to-day tasks that pop up and by the end of the summer, i’d probably realize that i did a lot of things, but didn’t learn as much as i would’ve liked to.

learning solidifies in two ways:

1. you started intentionally by filling a gap you were aware of, or

2. you reflected after an experience and realized you developed a skill/lesson you didn’t have before.

at the core, both happen when you know what you don’t know.

today’s drops 🔎

• check out the gem fellowship for science/eng masters & phd candidates

• game operations internship @ tencent

• applications close tomorrow for the pace fellowship for young technologists