“I don’t know everything. I don’t pretend to either. But I do generally know where to find the answers. Better late than wrong.”

This is pretty self-explanatory, no?

But I’m often surprised by how many people, when asked a question people expect them to know the answer to (and they don’t), kind of blather on and on aimlessly, or simply state firmly and assertively, something completely WRONG-O.

In my first tweet of this series, I talked a little bit about how the internet has helped and/or hurt journalism (and in particular sports journalism and in more particular-particular baseball journalism).

One of the “helps” is that there are a lot of great and reliable factual websites where, if you don’t know the answer to something, you can find it (becoming familiar with which ones ARE reliable and which are not so much, that’s another story).

But overall, there is very little that is fact that can’t be confirmed on the ‘net if you know where to look, or, often in my case, by calling the person in question to simply ask.

On the occasions that I am asked by aspiring journalists or what-have-you for career advice, one thing I ALWAYS warn them is this … If you don’t know something for sure, DON’T PRETEND YOU DO. It will bite you in the ass. I promise this.

There is nothing wrong with saying “You know what, that’s a good question. I am not 100 percent sure of the answer so I will find out and get back to you with it.” And then, DO find out and DO get back to them with it, if you can.

Right now, I have an absolutely fabulous part-time seasonal sales job for the holidays at my favoritest favoritest store in the whole wide world. It’s like sticking a chocoholic at Willy Wonka’s factory. But not with chocolate. And believe me, I know a LOT about this company’s product because I think I have helped support them single-handedly for the better part of a decade.

But there are still many things I don’t know (because they, like baseball, have a constantly evolving and changing line of products and stories about the products). So when a customer comes in, if they ask me a question about something and I don’t know the answer, the worst thing I can do is “make it up” … instead, I ask someone there who DOES know (and am lucky enough to have a few managers, at least one of whom is always there, who actually DO know everything!) And each day, each shift, I learn more and more and can answer more and more.

SO the advice I give may be for baseball and journalism, but really, it’s for life.

Tomorrow, I will talk about bubble baths.