A little knowledge

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,
Drink deep, therefore, or taste not Pierian Spring,
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
But drinking largely sobers us again.
Alexander Pope

One thing about having some age is that there is no reason to have an arrogance about what we know and don't know. Why bother wasting breath if we don't honestly know. We know that someone in the nation has studied a particular area. So, we simply defer to that person.

But on Thursday of this week, I came face-to-face with one of those young upstarts who thought her experience was the end-all word on a matter. She even decided to let her experience guide her thinking in direct opposition to a well researched idea. Her remarks, couched in rather stinging terms, didn't end with her notions being spoken. She decided that she needed to provide her great wealth of life's knowledge with everyone else in the city since it was so beneficial through mass producing a notebook of her ideas.

It is hard for me to be too diplomatic in such a situation. I excused myself from the conversation after about 10 minutes to go to more productive work left to do in the day, but the young woman droned on with a couple of other people for another 15 minutes. If I had thought to do it at the time, I would have quoted Alexander Pope's pithy saying listed above. But, there will be another occasion or she will discover this truth on her own. I can only hope she drinks largely to sober her from her intoxicated state.