Don't be afraid to say "I don't know"

This past week in Computer Forensics in the Law we were covering the rules for expert witnesses.  One of the rules when on the witness stand, and several variations thereafter, was "If you don't know the answer, say so."  This is good advice in many other areas of life, no place else more than in the computing industry.  Our industry changes so fast, there is no way anyone should posture expertise in any but a few areas.

I am reminded of this when I read of Jeff Atwood (coding horror, stack overflow) getting his password found by someone else.  I love that Jeff came out and just said "check this out, I screwed up, don't make the samePublish Post mistake".