The smartest people you’ll meet say “huh, I didn’t know that” way more often than you’d expect.

Being able to say you do not know something takes a kind of security, and people who know a lot tend to have it, because they have hit the edges of their knowledge often enough for the edge to stop being frightening. Pretending is far more common among people who are unsure. The admission is not weakness, it is the sound of someone still taking things in.

Practice saying it out loud this week, even when it stings a little. I did not know that. I have never understood this part. Watch who respects you more afterwards, which is usually everyone worth caring about.