Male Answer Syndrome explained in one sentence:

[randomness]

"Unmanly is admitting you don't know." --someone a couple of tables over at breakfast.

Comments

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

graduate school is about explaining exactly why nobody currently knows, including off-the-cuff experimental designs that would enlighten everyone, concluding with a theoretical rantlet about what the answer "very likely" is, all delivered in a voice that admits to only the deepest understanding ;)

[marmota.livejournal.com]

Hee! So basically it morphs into "Here is why we can't answer this" syndrome?

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

It also explains why a lot of physicists are so damned rude, in one sentence.

[quezz.livejournal.com]

This is why I am going to become a nun once I give up on the whole family thing. Men are much easier to deal with when you feel no pressure to breed with them.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Interacting with people in general seems to get easier--or at least, it removes one level of complexity--when the hormones die down.

It seems to be happening to me, at least.

[marmota.livejournal.com]

Huh, I didn't know that. ;)

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Dunno.

I didn't catch the rest of the conversation as they were a couple of tables over and the intervening table was mostly talking over them.

[milktree.livejournal.com]

I'd have said, "Manly is being able to admit you don't know."

I claim

[drwex]

People often ask me if I can answer a question for them. I assert "I can answer ANY question; often the answer is 'I don't know'."

That's not original to me, but I've forgotten from whom I stole it.

Also of late with my kids I've been practicing various forms of "I don't actually know that but we can look it up if you care."