The real wisdom here isn't mere humility—it's recognizing that acknowledging your ignorance creates intellectual permission to stop pretending and start learning. A surgeon who knows the limits of her expertise will consult colleagues and stay current with research; a surgeon convinced of her own brilliance becomes dangerous. Munger spent decades building wealth precisely because he'd admit when a business lay outside his circle of competence rather than strain to understand it, which freed him to focus where his judgment actually mattered. That's not false modesty; it's the difference between a mind that compounds knowledge over time and one that merely collects impressive-sounding opinions.