It's okay to not know

This is actually an important tip. It’s taught in sales and customer David engineering as well as management. It acknowledges a persons concern and shows listening and engagement, and sounds much better than “duh... I dunnoh?” It makes you seem like a professional- someone who can get t done, as opposed to seeming incompetent. No one has all the answers- but making stuff up is about the worst thing you can do as you have a small chance of being right and will lose credibility and trust when found out. It is CRUCIAL however that you actually follow through and find out and respond. You may be able to get away with it in certain circumstances where the person forgets or moves on- but most likely they’ll remember at some point and recall you never got back to them and you will lose credibility as well.

I had a high school teacher like that, except she also involved me in the research. She'd get out her college textbooks and point me to the right sections that might have relevant info, and answer context questions if I didn't understand the book. While I read she'd also search for the answer online. (Of course, I had to bring these questions to her after class. If I asked during the lecture, the answer was usually "not in the scope of this class. Moving on.")

I had an interview with a mock study abroad counselor once when I was like 12 in order to get some experience in talking with a professional adult. She asked me a question about the country (Germany), and I didn't know the answer, but I knew adults wanted one immediately when asked, so I sputtered and made something up. She just looked at me and asked "do you not know?" I was extremely embarrassed and said no. She then asked "do you want to," and showed me a book with the info. She told me that the most valuable thing you can do is learn, and not knowing something is the first step towards knowing that thing, and sometimes you have to tell people that.

I had a professor who, when my classmates and I would have presentations and need to answer questions, told us that if we didn’t have an educated response that we should commit to saying and doing “I’m not sure at the moment, but I will do some research and get back to you”. Immediately took unnecessary pressure off our shoulders and still ensured that we would eventually have the info

Also goes for doctors.