A Year Of Humility (XXVII): Better Than I

 I struggle with knowing when I am beyond my depth.

Many many years ago when I was a fledging undergraduate, my advisor commented that my methodology of debating was the equivalent of Blitzkreig:  an overwhelming storm of words and thoughts followed by a sort of "And that is the way it is".  He pointed out that this might not be the best way to engage in a debate, or really in life itself.

Among the things that lends itself to this sort of thing is sometimes the habit of thinking that a passing acquaintance with something equals a great knowledge of it.  In some cases that works - but not many.  This sort of thing can lead to "A Bridge Too Far", especially impactful if it is much beyond simple things like "How much to water the lawn" or "Which hay is best for my rabbit" (Timothy, if you were wondering, unless they are allergic to it).

What this combination of confident arguing in the face of any learning and assumption of greater depths of knowledge can lead to is personal and professional collapse.  Part of the maturity that, in theory, should come with time is the knowledge that we are not, colloquially put, "all that", and acknowledge the fact that we may not be as skilled/expert/knowledgeable about a thing as others.

This is the point where, at least for me, pride gets in the way.

One could argue that this is similar to my post last week, which discussed the primacy of Scripture.  It is true, but there is one additional aspect to it:  too often, my own pride gets involved.  After all, it is one thing to acknowledge that a document has the information that one lacks.  Oftentimes it seems quite a different thing to acknowledge the same of a person.

It is pride, of course.  It comes in different ways at different stages of our lives.  When we are young, we think "old people" do not know better; when we are old, we sniff at "the young" that do not have our experience.  Experts sniff at amateurs who may know far more about a thing than they; amateurs can disregard experts who lack "real world knowledge" and are lost in "ivory towers".

That is not to say that everyone is right all the time.  It is to say that sometimes we can overlook our best interests by pushing aside knowledge because of who it may come from.

Is it hard when I have to backtrack on something that I did not know as much about as others?  Yes.  Far better, at least for me, to hold my tongue at the outset and listen and find out where the gaps in my own knowledge might be.

Perhaps even far better to admit that I simply do not know everything about everything.  A little humility goes a long way towards learning.