"While some of us may know than others about certain things, it is the thinnest slice of all that is, or could be known. In that sense, we are all profoundly ignorant"
About this Quote
Humility lands harder when it comes from someone whose job is to sound certain. Osgood, a journalist and broadcaster, isn’t performing the fashionable “no one knows anything” shrug; he’s putting a thumb on the scale against professional confidence. The line opens with a concession to expertise - yes, some people genuinely know more - then promptly miniaturizes it. “The thinnest slice” is doing the work: not a void, not a lie, but a sliver shaved off an unimaginably larger whole. It’s a metaphor built for an information age that sells mastery by the hour and treats knowledge like a product you can stockpile.
The subtext is a critique of how public discourse mistakes fluency for understanding. Journalism often rewards the crisp take, the finished sentence, the illusion that complexity can be wrapped before the segment ends. Osgood’s “profoundly ignorant” isn’t self-flagellation; it’s a warning label. If our knowing is thin, then our certainty should be thinner still, and our moral posture less theatrical. It nudges the listener away from the dopamine hit of being right and toward a more durable stance: curiosity paired with restraint.
Context matters here because Osgood’s career was built on translating the world for mass audiences. That role can either harden into authority or soften into stewardship. This quote argues for the latter: the journalist as guide, not oracle, reminding us that expertise is real but always partial, and that the most dangerous ignorance is the kind that doesn’t know it’s ignorant.
The subtext is a critique of how public discourse mistakes fluency for understanding. Journalism often rewards the crisp take, the finished sentence, the illusion that complexity can be wrapped before the segment ends. Osgood’s “profoundly ignorant” isn’t self-flagellation; it’s a warning label. If our knowing is thin, then our certainty should be thinner still, and our moral posture less theatrical. It nudges the listener away from the dopamine hit of being right and toward a more durable stance: curiosity paired with restraint.
Context matters here because Osgood’s career was built on translating the world for mass audiences. That role can either harden into authority or soften into stewardship. This quote argues for the latter: the journalist as guide, not oracle, reminding us that expertise is real but always partial, and that the most dangerous ignorance is the kind that doesn’t know it’s ignorant.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|
More Quotes by Charles
Add to List
