The deeper I know about a matter, the more I realized I have addressed many wrong questions in the past - which has been answered in a really wrong sense. Yap, I'm talking about those questions which sounds smart and challenging that the person who's been asked have no idea that that questions contained serious flaws. And they, in the light of their expertise, will rather pretending to be able to answer that 'wrong questions' than honestly answer 'I have no idea' or 'I must look it up first'.
This is one of the most true example of how many people will answer wrong questions:
"What do you think about the new rules issued by Ministry of Transportation to impose different gas prince for people based on their monthly income?" SMART! Beside the fact that I just made that issue up, the more important flaw is that there is NO Ministry of Transportation in Indonesia. And yet, people keep answering.
It makes me remember of one of the questions addressed by an interviewer during my Fulbright interview back home. When I mentioned how I wanted to learn more about EPA, and when I mentioned some amazing programs EPA administered and how I want to research about possibility of applying that in Indonesia, he asked me:
"Do you know that EPA will be dissolved soon?"
I thought hard if I ever heard of that before, and innocently answered "Really?" with a super dumb face. I decided pretending to know will possibly more risky because I really had no idea whether he's asking a true question or he merely tricked me. Later on after I started my courses in the US, his question made more sense to me. He probably was referring to the war on coal, of which the republicans started highlight more and more EPA's costly programs and policies, and framing EPA as 'killing capitalism'. And it become clear to me that such question is inherently wrong, and it could be really good test on how well a person knows, or pretend to know, EPA. If I were at the state of my knowledge right now, the most possible answer was "I know that Republicans have tried so hard to frame that for years - yet to my knowledge, there is no success effort in dissolving it. EPA has successfully nailed Republican efforts to stay away from US' duty in climate change so far"
Be careful with experts. Sometimes they don't realize that intentional mislead is a big academic sin.
This is one of the most true example of how many people will answer wrong questions:
"What do you think about the new rules issued by Ministry of Transportation to impose different gas prince for people based on their monthly income?" SMART! Beside the fact that I just made that issue up, the more important flaw is that there is NO Ministry of Transportation in Indonesia. And yet, people keep answering.
It makes me remember of one of the questions addressed by an interviewer during my Fulbright interview back home. When I mentioned how I wanted to learn more about EPA, and when I mentioned some amazing programs EPA administered and how I want to research about possibility of applying that in Indonesia, he asked me:
"Do you know that EPA will be dissolved soon?"
I thought hard if I ever heard of that before, and innocently answered "Really?" with a super dumb face. I decided pretending to know will possibly more risky because I really had no idea whether he's asking a true question or he merely tricked me. Later on after I started my courses in the US, his question made more sense to me. He probably was referring to the war on coal, of which the republicans started highlight more and more EPA's costly programs and policies, and framing EPA as 'killing capitalism'. And it become clear to me that such question is inherently wrong, and it could be really good test on how well a person knows, or pretend to know, EPA. If I were at the state of my knowledge right now, the most possible answer was "I know that Republicans have tried so hard to frame that for years - yet to my knowledge, there is no success effort in dissolving it. EPA has successfully nailed Republican efforts to stay away from US' duty in climate change so far"
Be careful with experts. Sometimes they don't realize that intentional mislead is a big academic sin.
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