Do you think you know? Having the attitude that one knows "everything" is one of the greatest barriers to learning. "You think you know everything" was one of the admonishments that Furuya Sensei often said to me. Then I thought it was some sort of pseudo compliment. Today as a teacher, I can understand why it wasn't. Having this type of self-righteousness can lead us down a path toward a slippery slope. The slippery slope arrives when one would rather choke on their pride than admit they don't know. With this pride comes a fall shortly thereafter
Sometimes when we don't want to admit that we are wrong and we try and cover up our miss step. I recently read an article where this phenomenon is called "overclaiming."
From Science Daily: New research reveals that the more people think they know about a topic in general, the more likely they are to allege knowledge of completely made-up information and false facts, a phenomenon known as "overclaiming." The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
In today's society, a teacher or a "master" should know all. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The term for teacher in Japanese is sensei (先生). The word itself translates to mean "one who comes first." Therefore a teacher isn't the teacher because they know it all. It is merely because they have been where you have been shortly before you.
Original story: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150720092303.htm