"I know" is no longer good

Category: Knowledge

Published: 06/16/2009 01:03 p.m.

I remember the good old days of second grade. My teacher, Ms. English, was so enthusiastic. Because of this, we were so enthusiastic too. She would write a problem on the blackboard and ask "Who knows the answer to this one?" A few hands would quickly fly up around the room with kids yelling over one another "I know, I know!" Then, Ms. English would call on a student, and if they were correct, would reward with with a "That's right Timmy" and put a star on their chart. Saying "I know" was impressive. These were the good old days of "I know".

As I got older, I learned that the success of the phrase "I know" was decreasing with age. In middle school, you were regarded as the nerd or teacher's pet. By high school even the teachers found it annoying when a single student knew the answer to all of the questions. While I was able to observe this, I never made the jump to changing my actions. Yes, I was the "I know" kid for most of high school. I now see the error in my ways, but it's too late to change the past. My concern is the present and future.

In high school, it seemed that both saying "I Know" and knowing were uncool. This began to morph again in college where saying it was still lame, but knowing was starting to become better. Being knowledgeable in a subject meant you could tutor the other students (read: hot girls) in your class. This was great, and had I chosen a major that didn't have a 12/1 M/F ratio, I might have used this to my advantage. But alas, knowing did not benefit me much.

I am quickly learning that in the real world, knowing is a wonderful thing to have. And not to my surprise, saying "I know" is more annoying and less impressive than ever (see: Social Media Experts on Twitter). At least in class we had the opportunity to showcase that we knew something by performing well on tests. In the real world, you have to prove yourself in other ways, all of which prohibit screaming "I know" in any form or fashion. This is where I find things to be a bit broken.

In school, we had many opportunities to get to know the other students. Because of this, when a student hinted at knowing something, we could quickly judge based on previous experience with that student if they knew or not. Imagine a situation where the Final is Open-Friend, meaning you can collaborate with any student in the room. I think most classes (as a whole) would do very well on this test. Part of this is because of the relationships that were formed and the impressions that the students made on one another throughout the year. The real world is very similar to this, with a twist. Instead of the Final being at the end of the year, it is now on the first day of class. The problem is that people no longer have the past experiences with one another to use as a guideline. Some people may have friends in the class, and smaller groups would most likely form instead of one or two large groups in the previous example. The overall grade would drop not because of a lack of knowledge, but because of a lack of the right knowledge propagating through.

The web makes this better and worse simultaneously. Social networks can connect people with similar interests and with similar strengths and passions. But, strangers are still strangers, and getting a good idea about what someone knows takes time. Generally more time than we have (or want) to give. The strangers can be SME's or web developers or even auto-body repair shops. Everyone who says they are an expert could be, or they could be an idiot.

The point is, saying "I know" doesn't work anymore. It's been on the decline since middle school and I believe it's nearing its functional end-of-life. I am making it a goal of mine to say "I know" less. Now, this doesn't mean I will stop sharing knowledge. It just means I will share things that I really know. I'm just as guilty as anyone of saying "I know" way too much, and sometimes when really I don't know. It comes across as arrogant and annoying, and really doesn't help anyone. And on top of that, it is still hasn't impressed anyone since Ms. English...