Tomorrow will be my show day; my half-degree assessment. I just finalized the powerpoint slides in the evening. I did not even bother to write a speech or go through it. Looks like it'll be an hour presentation, or close to (if one slide will take about a minute to explain). Then the major part will be qustions by the thesis committee and the audience, which will be about another hour or so. This is the time people will know how much you know about your work. I used to worry about Q&A. But this time, I realize that's really pointless for me to worry, not that I know my stuff well. It's just that there isn't much I could do at this stage; last minute brainstorming or burning the mid-night oil does not work on me. So I'll try to be all relaxed. One funny thing my main supervisor advised to me was, "Remember, if you don't know the answer, just say you don't know." I could not believe he actually mentioned that twice to me. But it's a good reminder. You don't want to make yourself a fool by making up silly answers in front of the panel of expert there."I don't know." That sounds easy to say. But I do realize there are times that we feel embarrassed to admit to others that we do not know the answer for a question. Or sometimes we just simply make up some answer even though we do not have a clue of the question. I am not speaking about Q&A session in a presentation. Simple things like someone approaching you or you approaching someone for direction. I wonder how many of you were told the wrong information and ended up feeling more lost. Telling people "I don't know" is not easy for some people because they tend to think that if they admit they do not know the answer, they could be view as stupid, someone who's behind the group and stuff.
In contrary, there are some people for some reason wish not to expose the truth that they know. Hence when they are asked for the information or whatever, immediately they would tell you, "I don't know. Don't ask me. Ask so-and-so." This "I don't know" line is commonly exploited to cover ourselves from "trouble". Wise? I personally do not prefer this. I guess if you want to avoid answering, perhaps it's good to just walk away or at least not making up a small lie like "I don't know" when the fact is you actually know about it.
All right, I'll be really honest tomorrow when my thesis committee members happen to ask me tough questions, I shall just tell them, "Interesting but I don't know." Hey if you are interested to listen to my work, do drop by. It is an open seminar; anyone can just walk in and ask nasty questions. I'll try my best to answer, otherwise, "I don't know" is a good one too. Heh.
♥ every page of my imagination
