Avoiding the humiliation. of over-reaching ourselves
I’m serious about a return to civil discourse – you know, like what we learned in kindergarten? And accomplishing that before we meet with our star family would have distinct advantages.
As two more bricks in that wall, I’d like to discuss “status of knowledge” and “domain of functional competence.”
Status of Knowledge
The most common argument I see or hear is “how do you know?” In other words, what is the status of your knowledge? Know for certain? Gut feeling? Intuition? Years of scholarship? Lived experience? Realization?
Is it your opinion? Belief? View? Perspective? Political leaning? Religious? Economic?
In other words, who are you in the matter?
I encourage all writers, wherever an important assertion is made, to state the status of their knowledge in making it. If you need to offer a reference or add a word of explanation, perhaps place it in the footnotes.
Domain of Functional Competence
Where things also often go wonky is when we think that our expertise in one domain translates into an expert opinion in another when it doesn’t. And what we say is inappropriate and we look foolish.
We decide we need to develop some awareness of over-reaching ourselves.
I have to keep telling myself not to venture into a new area and act like I know it all. I like venturing into new areas. But it works best with a generous helping of humility.
I consider it best to approach each new field with the self-understanding that I probably know very little about the situation we’re in and am dependent on our hosts to guide us. Without expectation, and with much gratitude, I hope to avoid some of the mistakes we almost always seem to make. And spend years regretting.