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Is saying "I dont know" acceptable?

sted

By sted
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sted

sted

Posted
Posted (edited)

as an aside to the Is using Google a failure thread

 

personally id rather say I don't know than bluff it (depending on exactly what it is) id also rather say no to a request being possible look it up and be proved wrong than say yes and be proved wrong

Edited by elsiegee40
Edu-IT

Edu-IT

Posted
Posted
Yes. How can you possibly know everything? As long as you reach a solution in the end, what does it matter that you have to go away and do some research?
korifugi

korifugi

Posted
Posted

Of course it's acceptable - no one person can know everything, and tech moves at such a pace that keeping up would be impossible anyway.

 

Saying "I don't know" just signifies that you don't know at this point in time...

 

THEN, you go a research it (read; Google), then you may well know.

tmoon-mint

tmoon-mint

Posted
Posted
as an aside to the Is using Google a failure thread

 

personally id rather say I don't know than bluff it (depending on exactly what it is) id also rather say no to a request being possible look it up and be proved wrong than say yes and be proved wrong

 

Normally instead of bluntly saying "I don't know" I say "I'm not sure, but I can find out for you." seems to come across much better.

bald_pig

bald_pig

Posted
Posted
yes, but I wouldn't give a flat "I don't know" response, I'll normally say "I haven't seen that one before" or "That's a new one on me" before going to Google!
  • Thanks 1
fairm010

fairm010

Posted
Posted
As others have said, I was taught early on to say "I don't know" rather than pretend to and look the fool. Go away, research it, test it, make sure you're happy with it, do it.
Tesla

Tesla

Posted
Posted (edited)

Dunno.

 

In all seriousness, again, depends on the situation. Though unfortunately i think someone was on the blunt end of a "I don't know" from myself this morning...

Edited by Tesla
Oaktech

Oaktech

Posted
Posted (edited)

Kinda depends what it is...

 

I usually say something like "Off the top of my head, I don't know but let me go look that up and I'll get back to you in $TimeFrame." or "Give me 5 minutes, I need to make sure I'm right about this before I do $Action" or "I've seen this before, but it was a while ago, let me make sure nothing has changed and I'll be able to fix it."

 

I can think of maybe only 2 occasions where I have gone away, researched something that sounded reasonable and had to come back with "I'm sorry, I can't find out how to do what you want."

 

I never, ever lie, but I have been known to blind with science!

 

:)

Edited by Oaktech
Ephelyon

Ephelyon

Posted
Posted
Dunno.

 

In all seriousness, again, depends on the situation. Though unfortunately i think someone was on the blunt end of a "I don't know" from myself this morning...

 

^ This.

 

(Also: out! Go on! Get your coat! :p )

 

But seriously, I must admit that at this point, with this school, I do find myself saying it, and saying it somewhat more flatly than less a lot of the time. Google only goes so far - which isn't its own limitation, just that sometimes you're really not going to find the answer unless you know exactly what to look for. And sometimes, we don't know what we don't know. I used to give the "not sure at this point but I'll try and find out" answer but cynicism has got the better of me there over the past couple of years.

 

The root of my issue is essentially "resentment". I resent being expected to know everything about printers / projectors / some arse of a program because there isn't really any reason why I should. I. Am. A. Sysadmin. That is my professional background. If you want me to have additional tech skills, train me in them. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'll try and find an answer (though there are some cases where I know I haven't the faintest idea where to even begin so that's a non-starter and will result in a flat "I don't know"), and there are some things I actively enjoy finding out more about, but if I can't and it's not something we have support for, the answer is that we don't know so the school will have to somehow cope.

 

What the school gets is the sum total of my skillset + my Technician's skillset + whatever else we can somehow find out or source. If it wanted something else, it should have hired someone else. And, interestingly, I'm actually completely fine with that happening at the moment as I can just fall back on translation if necessary...

  • Thanks 1
Oaktech

Oaktech

Posted
Posted
Absolutely.

 

Follow it up telling them that you will research it on Edugeek, haha.

 

The first rule of Edugeek... You do not talk about Edugeek. To mere mortals this place cannot be known to exist.

  • Thanks 3
Scotbynature

Scotbynature

Posted
Posted
The first rule of Edugeek... You do not talk about Edugeek. To mere mortals this place cannot be known to exist.

 

Ah, so a bit like that other club we do not talk about, you know where rule 1 is we do not talk about it ;)

  • Thanks 1
mikeprice

mikeprice

Posted
Posted

"I don't know" tends to be my default answer to most questions

 

e.g. the sound isn't working on my computer (at the far end of the school ) - what should I do

answer - I don't know

 

addendum - but I'll come and have a look

 

I think "I don't know" is fine - but it should then carry on to something more positive

Oaktech

Oaktech

Posted
Posted (edited)
"I don't know" tends to be my default answer to most questions

 

e.g. the sound isn't working on my computer (at the far end of the school ) - what should I do

answer - I don't know

 

addendum - but I'll come and have a look

 

I think "I don't know" is fine - but it should then carry on to something more positive

 

That's fine, unless $teacher has that rabbit in the headlights look because ofsted/$exam/lesson observation is about to take place. These are situations where the merest whiff of negativity will result a nervous break down, tears and much gnashing of teeth. They must be treated with levels of optimism you only find out you are capable of when you've seen the other thing happen!

 

Le edit... I know this because I made a glib comment the other day to a member of staff, something about not knowing which printer tray to put her sheets of labels in because I didn't know what tray settings she'd used in the print dialogue, I will never forget the look of betrayal in her eyes as she whimpered 'but i've only just got enough labels... You must know...' and burst into tears. :(

Edited by Oaktech
Tesla

Tesla

Posted
Posted

Most of my "Don't knows" tend to be related to Word and, more specifically, tables.

 

Can't really Google specifics in a given table that wont resize correctly, it's a lottery.

  • Thanks 1
sonofsanta

sonofsanta

Posted
Posted

I can't believe this is even a question. Of course it's ok.

 

Old Head: would always pretend he knew what he was on about because he didn't want to admit he didn't understand it. Result: frustration, annoyance, avoidance.

 

New Head: will keep asking questions until he understands enough to give an answer he's confident in. Result: respect, trust, happy staff.

 

"Dunno, but let's find out" is my answer to most questions I'm asked. I don't need to know everything, I just need to know how to find it out, especially in this day and age of having the internet to act as an outboard brain. I've read articles about how the internet is changing our memory: we remember less for immediate & accurate recall, but we are aware of more knowledge and remember how to retrieve it from online. Net result: we know more, with a few intermediary steps. We are all, already, cyborgs, only lumbered with inefficient interfaces ("fingers").

pcstru

pcstru

Posted
Posted

I don't know is fine. Always. It's either the beginning of the journey of discovery, of knowing, or perhaps the end of the journey, the moment of shrugging and admitting it might be ... un-knowable.

 

Recognising when you don't have the facts you need to make a good decision is a hugely valuable skill. I think people in IT tend to be creative problem solvers and are often very skilled at coming up with good theories about why something isn't working or what might be a solution to a problem. Actually saying "I don't know" is almost alien - those voids are immediately filled with solutions and theories - or just simply sitting down infront of the problem and working a way out of it (a good example is how IT types tend to have no fear of unknown software and when a user of that says "how do I do X", they will grab the mouse and within a few minutes have figured it out). "I don't know" sits at the end of that path only when failure occurs and they can't figure it out. Perhaps that is why it is a little shunned.

 

Or not.

Ephelyon

Ephelyon

Posted
Posted

I think - though I could be wrong - what the OP might mean is "Is it OK for 'I don't know' to be both your first and last answer?"

 

It's often my first, but not always my last. Sometimes it's both though.

timbo343

timbo343

Posted
Posted
I usually say "i dont know" or "i'm not too sure" but always say i'll check it out and get back to you. Sometimes the answer is i still don't know but most of the time i get back to them with an answer.
mikeprice

mikeprice

Posted
Posted

Although I beleive in horoscopes in the same way that I beleive in the Loch Ness Monster - I did hear from someone that we are currently entering the age of Aquarius and exiting the Age of Pisces (go on - how many of you started singing the song)

 

Anyway - the difference apparently is that in the age of Pisces we are told stuff - in the age of Aquarius (you're singing again) you find stuff out for yourself

 

And this started at about the time the Internet started - and then the WWW

 

So - it is now OK to not know but know how to find out (which is what we do - isn't it???) but it wasn't 50 years ago (or whenever)

 

Never been interested enough to check this out properly so I could be talking b******s but......

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