The best programmers I know

> In job interviews, I pushed candidates hard to at least say “I don’t know” once.

Yes yes! Although, in an interview, there is not always an easy way to separate out people that can’t say “I don’t know” during day to day work, from those that can. But what a difference. A strong need to hide a lack of omniscience is wildly irritating to me, in co-workers and people in general. It causes such problems!

Ha. “I Don’t Know” is probably my most common answer to questions at work, often followed up immediately with "What have you tried" or "What has changed"