I don’t know…

When was the last time you uttered those words? More to the point, when was the last time you said those words without embarrassment?

It’s frightening to think that you might not know something…

Amos Tversky, Part I

Why do we struggle so much to say these words? Does anybody really believe they have the answer to everything? Impossible!

…but more frightening to think that, by and large, the world is run by people who have faith that they know exactly what is going on.

Amos Tversky, Part II

Here I sit, reading newspapers again, after a long hiatus believing “the best news is no news”. And whether the debate is around the economy, climate, inequality, success, war, technology, the future or anything else that matters, there are very few “I don’t knows” in these stories.

So many experts, pushing their agendas, giving us answers and solutions. And sometimes with such certainty, backed by numbers, arguments and counterarguments.

Really? Have we canvassed all options? Have we stood in somebody else’s shoes and looked at it from her perspective? Or are we so in love with our story that we refuse to listen to someone else’s version?

These are all very hard questions for which answers are elusive, difficult and many times, conflicting in outcomes. I don’t know, there may not even be an answer. There, I said it, “I don’t know.”

This is such a powerful sentence. It is full of possibility, focus, conversation and collaboration. It is a fresh start and one that can perhaps get us closer to finding a fix or two to our problems.