There are also integrity questions that become more pronounced. A lot of people are saying a lot of things. Who is telling the truth? Whose job is it to find out? One manifestation of knowing when you don't know is recognizing when someone may be lying to you.
For much of my investigative reporting career, I covered fraud. Fraud is when one party intentionally and knowingly deceives another, and gains a profit from that deception. Fraud is a self-concealing crime, so the courts allow those who have been subjected to it some extra leeway when it comes to assembling the facts that lead to its discovery.
But once a fraud victim is aware there's a problem, they take on part of the burden; they have an obligation to take action or, after a while, forfeit their right to do so. Therefore, knowledge is power, but it also imparts responsibility.
I believe that the responsibility piece is much of why many people don't want to know when they don't know. And this is why so much pretending happens.
How to Know When You Don't Know
First, let's ask: what does it mean to know when you don't know? I think this comes in two shades: lack of awareness and willful ignorance.
Lack of awareness can be addressed by simply noticing your environment. Your environment is giving you feedback all the time. People say things to you. Do you listen to what they say?
You can take this a step further, into intentionally cultivating curiosity and mindfulness. Assuming one is interested, it's pretty easy to cultivate these states of mind. Most of what will get in the way is laziness and sloppy thinking. There are techniques to get past that, but the desire is a necessary ingredient.
Willful ignorance is more difficult to address. It's one of the most serious problems that the world now faces. In truth, all ignorance is willful—the word has as its root in the verb to ignore. Don't tell me; I don't want to know (what's in my food, my air, that contract, that person's intentions, and so on). It must be OK, or they wouldn't spray it on my food. The college would never let students live in dioxin-contaminated dorms. This kind of thing. He's wearing a suit; he must be telling the truth.
Let's assume you're curious and not willfully ignorant. Let's assume that you're willing to take responsibility for knowledge when it comes to you. And let's assume that you can get past the nervousness of admitting the extent of what you don't know. After all, there is plenty, and were you to acknowledge that you might feel like you're standing at the edge of a cliff.
It's not just a feeling. You actually are. So, with that in mind, here are a few techniques for knowing when you don't know.
1. You have a question. Is it really that simple? Yes it is, mates. You're wondering something, and it has a question mark tacked onto it. It might begin with the word "why" or "when," "where" or "how," "what" or "who." You know you want to know. As long as you don't suppress that, you will know that you don't know. The question is, do you have the guts to ask the question? And what do you do with the answer?
2. You notice something that you don't understand. Let's say you're reading a book or an article and you come to a word you don't recognize. The moment you notice that you don't recognize the word, you know that you don't know. Then what do you do? Do you look it up in the dictionary? Do you guess, or make up a meaning for the word? Once you start looking up words you don't know, it can become addictive. You suddenly want to know the meaning of every word that you admit you don't understand. Why? Because you learn something and that feels good.
3. You are presented with conflicting information. This might be about the safety of something, the cost of something, or any facts that someone presents you with. They might conflict with what you already knew (or thought you knew). Or you have two sources telling you two different things. Once you notice that the sources or their information conflicts, you know that you don't know. When you set out to resolve the conflict, you are on the path to finding out.