As a junior economics reporter, I was once given an assignment which made me panic. I was asked to write a story about an economic concept I didn't really understand. No one else from my team was around. Searching online left me more confused. Just then, Martin Wolf, the chief economics commentator（评论员）in my company，walked past my desk. I took a deep breath and asked him. He explained it well in a few sentences and my problem was unexpectedly solved.
Ever since then, I have been a big believer in asking "stupid" questions, by which I mean questions that you fear make you look stupid. But I'm worried this is a dying art. Professor Arvind Narayanan once told me that his students were always worrying their questions might be silly, which made the vast majority of his students tend to keep silent in lectures no matter how he encouraged them, even when they were still filled with confusion.
Fear of asking "stupid" questions can lead you to pretend you know more than you do, which also makes you more likely to believe whatever others say. One study published in 2021 asked participants to rank their knowledge of a set of terms on a five-point scale from "never heard of it" to "know it well, understand the concept＂. Some of the terms were real；others were fake（伪造的）. The study found that people who were more willing to pretend they know something well were more likely to fall for nonsense of others.
I know not everyone is lucky enough to have a Martin Wolf wandering past their desk. But trust me, a journalist who asks questions for a living: most people really don't mind being asked something "stupid". If they do, it is probably because they don't really understand it themselves, or they have something to hide. In that sense, you learn something useful either way.
