Being humble when making claims about the natural world

[Originally posted to Tumblr in "Solving Cubes" on March 17, 2013]

Here’s an idea, a practice we could all get into. When you make a statement or an implication about nature (biology, ecology, zoology, chemistry, physics, etc.) but you don’t actually know if what you’ve said is true, you have to follow what you’ve said with a disclaimer:

“I don’t know if that’s how science works.”

Or, if you’re typing, initialize it:

IDKITHSW

You know, in the hope that when people glorify knowledge and learning, they also avoid glorifying conclusion jumps.