[woofa.express]

To hear “I don’t know" sounds Great to me.

I worked 5 years as an itinerant pilot in both peninsula Malaysia and Borneo Malaysia. They have miles upon miles of oil palms and my job was to spread fertilizer on these trees.

If I ever wanted to know something I’d ask a local because they always seemed to know. But I quickly learned they would give an answer even if they didn’t know. They seemed obligated to do so. This was of course irritating.

Each morning when I went to work I’d instruct my work buddies to tell me if they didn’t know the answer to any of my questions. That transition took a long time and made them a little uncomfortable at first but eventually I got through to them. End of chapter one.

Throughout Australia most towns have a “Men’s Shed”. A great organisation. It is a national organisation and may well be an international one, I don’t know. It provides tools and machinery for wood or metal working. Our town has a population of about 2,000 and has 12 members, half are my former farmer clients, now retired. Whilst we do work we do have long morning teas where we talk and tell fibs.
One member is in his mid 90’s, he is Ed, a former manual arts teacher at high school. I asked him if he could come home and cut some glass for my under-construction glass house. When he saw the glass he asked is it safety glass. Yes it was, - shower screen glass I picked up at the local rubbish tip. He said no he couldn’t cut it. One bloke from the men’s shed asked if an angle grinder would do the job. Ed’s answer was “I don’t know”. That answer is what I like to hear when the answer to the question is unknown. Chapter one tells you why this was so.