What If I Don't Know What the Hell I'm Talking About?

Weekly reflections from Pure Pawsitivity • Week 11

I don't want fewer convictions. I want a better relationship with the ones I have.

What I Learned This Week

Years ago, I watched an interview with a man who was asked a question he couldn't answer.

I don't remember who he was. An author, a director, something like that.

I even spent time this week trying to find the interview again.

No luck.

But I've never forgotten what he did.

He didn't scramble for an answer. He didn't fill the silence with a bunch of words.

He simply admitted he didn't know enough about the subject and would need to learn more.

That was it.

I remember being amazed.

Not by what he knew, but by how comfortable he was with what he didn't know.

At that point in my life, if somebody questioned something I said, I would have felt like they were questioning me.

And I remember thinking:

Man, I wish I could do that.

Well, something happened on our podcast this week that brought that memory right back.

We had Dr. Odette Suter, a veterinarian with more than 30 years of experience, on the show.

We were talking about hormones, and I started connecting some dots about organ meats, nutrition, and the possibility of nutritional gaps affecting generations of pets.

My brain was having a wonderful time.

Then Dr. Suter asked a very simple question:

"What do you mean?"

She wasn't trying to catch me saying something stupid.

She just wanted to understand how I'd gotten there.

And something interesting happened.

I got excited.

Edan was next to me, cheering me on. My brain was racing. My mouth was doing its best to keep up.

But halfway through explaining myself, I realized something.

I could see the connections.

I couldn't fully support the conclusion yet.

So afterward, I went digging.

There are real relationships between nutrition, micronutrients, hormone regulation, and gene expression.

But that doesn't establish that generations of pets missing organ meats caused specific health problems.

Then I remembered fifth-grade science class.

I had a hypothesis.

A good one, I might add.

But a hypothesis worth investigating isn't the same thing as a conclusion.

And the surprising part?

I actually enjoyed being questioned.

Neither of us had to win.

I just found something else I wanted to learn.

Watch This Week's Presentation

What If I Don't Know What the Hell I'm Talking About? | Pawsitivity Presentation #11

This week I'm exploring what happens when we become more interested in understanding something than defending what we already believe.

Including when the thing we believe is something we're genuinely passionate about.

[WATCH PAWSITIVITY PRESENTATION #11]

The Four Pillars

Perspective

A question about something I believe isn't necessarily a question about me.

Someone asking me to explain myself might be offering an opportunity to understand something more clearly.

Awareness

Notice when I start defending an answer instead of investigating the question.

Especially when I'm certain I'm right.

Action

Ask what I might be missing.

Use the information I have, make the best decision I reasonably can, watch what happens, and adjust when there's reason to.

Will

Stay willing to discover what I don't know.

I can have strong convictions without making them impossible to question.

The Animal in Front of Me

Here's something I found fascinating while researching this presentation.

In an experiment involving dogs and hidden food, researchers found that dogs were more likely to check for information when they hadn't seen where the food was placed.

They didn't have all the information.

So they went looking.

Now, that doesn't mean Carlito is lying awake at night questioning the limitations of his own reasoning.

But it got me thinking.

Humans have universities, libraries, and phones containing more information than we could possibly consume.

And sometimes we'd rather argue than look behind a damn fence.

Edan and I have lived our own version of that.

Years ago, we searched everywhere for the freshest, highest-quality, least-processed kibble we could find.

Stores. Websites. Ingredients. Brands.

We were genuinely trying our asses off to do right by our animals.

But we kept asking:

What's the best kibble?

It hadn't occurred to us to ask:

Wait. Why kibble?

We didn't yet understand the other properly formulated whole-food options available.

We were searching everywhere we knew to look.

That's different from knowing everywhere there is to look.

I still believe deeply in species-appropriate, minimally processed nutrition.

But I don't want opposing kibble to become my identity.

That industry was part of the path that brought us here.

And I remember what it was like to be trying our hardest without seeing every option.

If somebody walks into Pure Pawsitivity blindly trusting a brand, a company, a veterinarian, or anybody else, and walks out blindly trusting Bobby, what the hell have I accomplished?

I'd rather help somebody ask better questions.

Including questions about what I say.

And ultimately, whatever we're discussing, I want us to remember the animal standing in front of us.

If I believe a particular feeding approach is best, but my dog develops diarrhea, am I willing to investigate what's happening?

Or am I so attached to my nutritional philosophy that I start defending the food instead of paying attention to my dog?

The dog doesn't give a shit about my nutritional philosophy.

Well, if it has diarrhea it is giving a lot of shit, but the point is the dog needs me to pay attention. 

Weekly Thought

What if I don't know what the hell I'm talking about?

That question doesn't mean I need to abandon everything I believe.

It doesn't mean I stop making decisions.

The animals still need dinner.

It means I can act on what I currently understand while remaining open to something I haven't considered.

A veterinarian has knowledge and experience I don't have.

A researcher might understand something I haven't studied.

And I know things about Rosa, Carlito, Opal, and Lokah that someone meeting them for the first time couldn't possibly know.

There's room for all of that information.

The question is whether I'm willing to let it change my understanding.

Maybe what I believed yesterday got me close enough to ask a better question today.

Keep Exploring

Two things from this week's presentation are worth exploring further.

How dogs seek information

Researchers have studied how dogs respond when they know, or don't know, where food has been hidden. Their behavior offers an interesting window into how animals gather information when faced with uncertainty.

[EXPLORE THE DOG INFORMATION-SEEKING RESEARCH]

Veterinary communication and shared decision-making

Research into veterinary conversations has also explored why pet guardians want explanations, opportunities to ask questions, and a meaningful voice in decisions about their animals.

Professional knowledge matters.

So does what someone observes about the animal they live with every day.

[EXPLORE THE VETERINARY COMMUNICATION RESEARCH]

And if you'd like to hear the conversation that helped inspire this week's presentation, our podcast with Dr. Odette Suter is a great place to continue.

[WATCH OUR CONVERSATION WITH DR. ODETTE SUTER]

I keep thinking about that interview I saw years ago.

Back then, I admired a man who could comfortably admit he didn't know something.

This week, I found myself in a conversation where I discovered the edge of what I could support.

Nobody took my microphone away.

I just found something else I wanted to learn.

And I hope that keeps happening.

Here in the shop.

On the podcast.

In my own home.

Because I'm not sharing everything I've figured out.

I'm sharing what I'm learning.

Keep Practicing With Us

If this made you look at your animal a little differently, that's enough.

Pawsitivity in Practice is where we keep sharing what we're learning each week through our animals, the shop, the podcast, the research, and the questions that follow us home.

Pure Pawsitivity™

Learning in public by paying attention to the animal in front of us.

I hope I never become so sure of what I know that I stop discovering what I don't.