We are individually ignorant in a lot of areas. But, rarely in the same areas. So, miraculously, this individual ignorance can give way to collective genius. If each of us is quite knowledgeable in just one or two topics and ignorant in a hundred others, we can not only get by as a culture but we can thrive.

However, for this collective genius to occur, we as individuals must agree to be honest about

1). What we know

2). What we don't know

This latter half of the agreement is something we struggle with. Humankind has gotten itself into quite a bit of trouble over the years pretending to know what it does not.