Saying “not sure yet” beats handing someone a confident wrong answer.

Confidence is easy to perform and expensive to be wrong about. When you guess with a straight face, whoever is listening builds something on it, and the correction arrives after they have already acted. Admitting you do not know costs you three awkward seconds and saves everyone the cleanup. It also makes people believe you the next time you do sound sure.

Try the honest version once this week, in class or at work. Say you are not certain, then say what you would need to find out. Nobody thinks less of that than they do of a confident mistake.