When asked for your opinion, say, "I don't know."

Actually, I say that a lot.

It doesn't baffle people who know me. They're aware that I can live with uncertainty. Which doesn't mean I won't talk about the issue at hand, merely that I might have some quantity of data but not enough to justify reaching a conclusion, much less finding a hill I choose to die on. Maybe enough to kick the topic around, but not enough to have an "opinion".

I think most people jump to conclusions too readily. And, as Tolstoy said:

"I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and mos...

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When asked for your opinion, say, "I don't know."

Actually, I say that a lot.

It doesn't baffle people who know me. They're aware that I can live with uncertainty. Which doesn't mean I won't talk about the issue at hand, merely that I might have some quantity of data but not enough to justify reaching a conclusion, much less finding a hill I choose to die on. Maybe enough to kick the topic around, but not enough to have an "opinion".

I think most people jump to conclusions too readily. And, as Tolstoy said:

"I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives."

And since I'm about out of room, I'll just dump in some other relevant (or close to being relevant...) quotes.

As Richard Feynman said:

"I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong."

Or Jack Vance:

"All is relative ease and facility in orthodoxy, yet how can it be denied that good is in itself undeniable? Absolutes are the most uncertain of all formulations, while the uncertainties are the most real."

"If you are not confused by the Uncertainty Principle, you do not understand it." -- William Lipscomb, Professor of Chemistry, Harvard University, the 1997 Heisenberg Certainty Lectures (To increase the Certainty each lecturer was limited by a thirty second time clock)