Don’t be a know-it-all

You see, it seems to me that a majority of the Rose-Hulman student population has a serious case of the “know-it-alls.” This condition is readily apparent to those unaffected, but those with the ailment are completely unaware they carry the harmful disease.

Some concrete examples of Know-it-allism are listed below to help you recognize (and avoid) this behavior. Think back to your recent conversations, have you or the person you were talking to exhibited any of these symptoms?

• Confusion of intellectual confidence and intellectual stubbornness: being confident means knowing that you have the intelligence and means to prove that your solution, or what you know, is true (or false) — in other words, be successful in an investigative endeavor. Intellectual stubbornness is the belief that because you have a thought in your head, it is true.
• Confusing a discussion with an argument.
• Inability to lose an argument: once Know-it-allites are proven wrong, and they know it, they will resort to raising their voices until they’re convinced that you’ve backed-down and, at worst, the argument is a “tie.”
• Attempting to correct an individual in another major about a major-specific topic.
• Over-extension of a limited knowledge base — oftentimes impeding group work.
• Inability to admit when wrong to you, or, more importantly, themselves.
• Arguing with an expert: If you ever see somebody losing an argument with a professor in class and refusing to give up…bingo.
• Confusion between knowing something is true and assuming something is true.
  
• Picking arguments for fun.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, wrote in his essay, “The Crack Up,” “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” Can you do that? Honestly sit down and think, when was the last time you weren’t so stubborn as to know beyond a shadow of a doubt your particular solution/idea/thought/dogma was right and your mind was actually open to new ideas? OK, not even open to new ideas, but open to the notion that you might be wrong.

It is unpleasant to know something for a fact and have it challenged, constantly. Now, I’m not saying that questioning what someone is saying is wrong — curiosity is the fuel of scientific thought. I am saying that badgering and badgering and badgering until someone has to prove something he or she already knew to be true is wrong. Some of you think that what you have to say is so important, so full of Ultimate Truth, that everything (and everyone) else is inferior. And by some, I mean a substantial minority of this campus (at least 40% of the student population...and that’s a conservative estimate).

If some of you bring this attitude into industry, you will be the laughing-stock of the workplace. Standing up for your ideas and having the wherewithal to back them up with fact is admirable, but promoting your ideas without any basis other than your own inflexibility is foolish and dangerous, and it will be regarded as such. Want to know what happens to sufferers of Know-it-allism in the workplace? Know-it-alls are asked to “drive home safely” at the end of an internship and are not asked back, nor offered a full-time job. Know-it-allism is the difference between getting shoehorned under a glass ceiling and getting that nice promotion. Know-it-allism is the difference between being a defendant in a civil suit because your single-minded superiority made a poor decision and being an expert witness. Yeah, Know-it-allism is not one of those conditions protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act…your career will be destroyed if you cop this attitude.

We all need to be unwaveringly committed to the notion that we’re all human, and despite our excellence, need to keep humility, tact, and perspective at the forefront of all social interactions. Nothing’s worse than letting people know that you suffer from Know-it-allism. They will dismiss your ideas despite your merits and will be perfectly happy to watch as you commit professional and social suicide.