It’s one thing to admit that you don’t know something, but I agree that way too many people use it as an intellectual crutch. They’re not saying that they don’t know, but rather that they don’t care enough to even think about formulating an answer. And that’s so incredibly frustrating to a teacher…

The commitment factor is exactly the reason why I think “I haven’t thought about it yet” or “I’ll find out” are so important. There’s no shame in not knowing something – if you don’t, you take the necessary steps to figure it out. It’s important to reinforce that concept often.

As an Intelligence Analyst, one of the worst things you can do is “shoot from the hip.” Know what you know. If you don’t know – say so. A commander would much rather know that you don’t know than you tell him something that is just “shooting from the hip.”

Likewise, if you tell a commander (or anyone), “I’ll find out.” You darn well better go find out! And get back to that individual as soon as possible.

The reason analysts shoot from the hip is they think they should know and will be reprimanded for not knowing. This all goes to my leadership and analyst philosophy I posted at my blog. Any good analyst (or student) will anticipate what questions will be asked and look for the answers prior to the presentation and therefore won’t be surprised and have to say, “I don’t know.” By the same token, they shouldn’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know” if they truly don’t know.

I believe much of this thinking can be transferred to education and students as well. I use it with my professors and while reading attempt to determine what questions they may ask in class so I can answer them or so I can seek further clarification or elaboration.

I like feel better now.

I thought you might be going down the Dr. Laura/Rush Limbaugh road of implying “feeling” about something is somehow indicative of liberalism plus having the patience of a flea—my bad.

Like, you know, I feel you about that whole like thing being like “you know”… You know? It is the “you know” of the new millennium.

You were being goaded… Whaaat… I never… How could you think such a thing?

To clear up the confusion, I think “I don’t know” is intellectually honest when used, well… honestly. There have been a myriad of times in my life when I was asked to answer a question for which I didn’t know the solution. So when I said, “I don’t know”, I just didn’t know, and depending on the circumstances I’d go on and explain why I didn’t know.

Whereas “I feel..” or “I’m not sure, but I think..” is often employed by those who don’t know but wouldn’t mind fronting like they do. I’m not saying these phrases don’t have their place. There’s times when they’re relevant. I’m talking about chronic usage. The “I feel..” crowd is pretty prominent. Not only do they use that term a lot, but many have the tendency to end their statements with an upward inflection (i.e. a tone of questioning). Constantly answering questions with “I feel..” is a completely safe and cowardly approach to giving an answer. It’s a sure sign of the same problem CTG has with his students using “I don’t know” – fear of being wrong. I’d much rather have a student give me a straight, honest response without creating some vast web of emotion that guards against the cruel, binary reality of right or wrong.

“Like” is a whole separate issue, one I even catch myself doing from time to time. It’s a problem, for sure, but it’s in a whole separate class. It’s a lot more like “you know..”. Mostly they’re just stalling techniques for people who aren’t great at communicating directly. Of course, there are the wonderful cases where the worlds collide and you get a long response rife with “I feel like, you know, like.. maybe this is like, what the answer is?” Good times.

With “like,” I usually hear someone out and let them use “like” as many times as they want. Then I say, “You’ve told me what it’s like, now tell me what it is.” It works well.

Another thing… me thinks Colin should stay far away from teaching kids, “Intellectually speaking that is.”