It is ok not to have all the answers

Have you ever seen a baby? A baby is a small creature that knows nothing, can do nothing and can accomplish nothing on its own. It needs ‘someone’ to take care of it. And through the process of a upbringing (good or bad) begins to learn the ways of the world. You and I have both started our lives in this manner. So now given that you and I have been babies once upon a time - we learn through a process of observing, hearing, memorizing, making mistakes, correcting ourselves and evolving. In some cases people ask questions. In other cases, without asking questions, we learn. Now it comes down to why some people “seem” to have all the answers by no questions. The answer is in your question itself. It only “seems” that they have all answers and no questions.

Given that there is not a single person on this planet who can know everything, there will be always something you and I do not know. So the answer to your question is that is seems that people have all the answers - which they don’t. And it would always seem that people do not have any questions - but in reality they do. Its just that we assume all this. And you know what people say about “Assuming”. It’s entirely possible that the “people with all the answers” had gotten the majority of their questions answered outside of social media at the same time when they were learning all their answers. Someone who has studied Japanese history for 25+ years likely asked their teachers and professors and research sources a ton of questions during that time, and now they have plenty of answers to share with us and much fewer questions that we can answer for them.

It’s also possible that they are asking questions on social media, but are easily finding the answers that have already been written. Why ask a new question when someone has already asked and answered your question to your satisfaction? Finally, I’d say it’s possible to know a lot about one thing, enough to answer in it, but know so little about what you want to know that you can’t even phrase a good question about it. I don’t know enough about typography to ask decent questions about it, but luckily for me I follow some knowledgeable people who do know a lot about the topic, and I can read their answers without having to form the questions myself.

?I think you may be asking a question that you already know the answer to, but I am going to try to answer this without making any assumptions on your intent, except for it being a sincere desire to know. I would say that there may be some people, probably a very small percentage, whose journey through life has led them to a point where they have run out of most things that they had wondered about in their younger days. Maybe their circumstances are such that they can no longer devote much of their mental resources to inquiring about or acquiring a broader knowledge of the world, because they have trouble pulling their focus away from their personal environments.

Maybe there are some people who believe that they've learned just about all they care to about things, in general… and the only questions remaining for them are the truly important ones.. The most important ones, which they haven't ever really learned any solid answers to. Instead they got by on guesses and partial, or maybe temporary answers and chose to focus their attention to learning about the lesser important answers in life. Things that are good to know, but not absolutely essential to know, in order to have a fulfilling life… like the sciences… literature, history. None of those are imperative to have the answers to, even though they are all considered the foundations of higher education.

Some people might be relatively knowledgeable in those areas, and/or have a wealth of experiences which can be shared here with others… while at the same time still struggling to learn the most important and basic answers in life that most people have already learned at a very young age- how, or even why, to live for a couple examples. These questions cannot really be answered by anyone on social media, save for the people who have the questions, themselves.

So the short answer here: some people have only questions which cannot be asked, nor answered. Thus, they stick to answering questions instead, about whatever they're capable of answering, and in doing this they manage to convince themselves that in some small way, they're part of the show and gain some sense of belonging, somewhere… in this case here at social media. But it would be a foolish mistake and a sign of ignorance to ever imagine that they (or anybody, for that matter) “have all the answers”.

Well, some of them are incurious. They don’t care what the rest of us think! And for some reason think that what they already know is enough….more solid knowledge might threaten their belief system? Some are paranoid, and feel they might reveal too much about themselves if they ask a sincere question. Or that they might be perceived as weak / dumb. But let’s make one thing very clear: they do not have all the answers. They may kid themselves that they do! And they may even fool some people like you! (No offense intended- it just sounded like a good rhyme at the time!)

I guess my short response to this would be that rather than having all the answers, there are people out there who just want to spend their time helping others, using what they have learnt to pass on advice and experiences. I've also found, that by answering someone's question, I may be answering the question I have of my own. Sometimes you have a question in your heart that you don't know how to answer, until someone else asks it, and then suddenly you have the answer at the tip of your tongue. I have asked questions on here, but I would far rather give than take. ( that's not to say that asking a question is selfish, after all without questions, there would be no social media and that would be a real loss to the internet! I just find that sometimes I feel guilty for asking questions and would rather help other people instead).

Vast majority of questions (99.9%, most likely) a human could possibly have can be solved by finding/researching the answers yourself. The information is available and it is at your fingertips. No matter the question, somebody already asked it and received responses, or wrote about the answer themselves. This information can be usually easily located through searching. The only reason why you’d ever need to ask another human directly is when you’re looking for a personal perspective, or if figuring out the answer yourself would take incredible long amount of time, or if the problem is truly unique (which is uncommon) and heavily dependent on context. Obviously most questions do not fall into either of those categories.

Basically, there’s almost nothing I would want to ask and couldn’t answer myself. However, for the very few problems I find interesting enough to ask questions and I usually receive no answers or very small number of them. Because when you are a true seeker after knowledge, you seek it. You don't waste your time asking random people online who may or may not have accurate answers and who generally have a bias. If you are of enquiring mind, then you have probably spent your life acquiring knowledge.

I have something like one question asked for every hundred answers. I like answering and helping others gain the knowledge they seek (unless its a homework question in which case it is better for them to learn it on their own!). But I only ask questions on social media if I really am majorly too lazy to research myself, or if the answer is something I need another human's specific knowledge for and is beyond the scope of google. Cheers!