# Is it a good thing or a bad thing when you don't have all of the answers?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-a-good-thing-or-a-bad-thing-when-you-dont-have-all-of-the-answers/815684>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 8, 2018, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-a-good-thing-or-a-bad-thing-when-you-dont-have-all-of-the-answers/815684 "2018-06-08T15:20:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2018, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-a-good-thing-or-a-bad-thing-when-you-dont-have-all-of-the-answers/815684/21 "2018-06-10T18:02:12Z")

</div>

> [@septimus](#):
>
> As long as we’re quoting, let’s not forget  
> **Originally Posted by Probably not John Bolton**  
> Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.

The quote is from Donald Rumsfeld. Now you know.

The best thing is knowing how to find the answers - and being willing to learn. My parents are in their 80s and attend adult education classes every week. They just want to keep learning new things.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2018, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-a-good-thing-or-a-bad-thing-when-you-dont-have-all-of-the-answers/815684/22 "2018-06-11T07:17:43Z")

</div>

I can give an answer to every question! The problem is (as I’ve shown in some of my posts), they’re not always the correct one!:smack:

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2018, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-a-good-thing-or-a-bad-thing-when-you-dont-have-all-of-the-answers/815684/23 "2018-06-11T07:58:36Z")

</div>

Not having all the answers is to be expected.

Being able to acknowledge it is to be smart enough to start seeking for them.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2018, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-a-good-thing-or-a-bad-thing-when-you-dont-have-all-of-the-answers/815684/24 "2018-06-11T08:07:22Z")

</div>

If someone claims to have (or acts as if he has) all the answers, I tend to be suspicious.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-a-good-thing-or-a-bad-thing-when-you-dont-have-all-of-the-answers/815684.md?page=1)