Ask Questions!!!!

I was reading one of my favorite blogs today, and he mentioned something that seemed so very relevant to my own blog that I figured I would link to it here:
http://www.informationarbitrage.com/2007/07/another-of-the-.html

I kinda glossed over this with the "be proactive" part of my "how-to-stand-out" post, but it's definitely worth revisiting. Mr Ehrenberg not only writes better than I, but he also has far more wisdom. In effect, we all have the same message "Ask all the questions you need to! You're better off and better respected for doing so!" I would add the following two observations.

First, if the young people tell you they knew everything when they came in (which one of our interns recently informed me happened), they're full of shit. I don't know what it is about young people in the bank, but a whole lot of them seem to think a lot more of themselves than they deserve. In truth no one knows shit until they actually work for a while. You pick things up on the job. That's just how things go in finance. There are too many details for schools to be able to teach you everything relevant to your job (they'd have to go through far too much stuff that wouldn't be relevant to your particular job). Ask questions, anyone with half a brain will assure you that it's better that way.

Second, it is a dominant strategy to ask questions. All of you who studied game theory will appreciate this. If you don't ask questions, you will find that you won't be too effective at your job and chances are you won't get an offer or promotion or what have you. If you do ask questions you'll be more effective at your job. Let's assume that asking questions makes you look dumb and prevents you from advancing. Well now whether you ask the questions or not, you won't advance. In this case you're better off asking all the questions and learning more. Then you've got a better shot at landing a job outside. Your choices basically drill down to just know everything (which is something you can't help) or ask questions for the future job prospects. It's shouldn't really even be a decision.