Humility

What Humility means when using AI

A generated spreadsheet formula gives your shared equipment inventory a beautifully tidy total. A colleague asks whether it includes the items awaiting return. You can point to the result, but you cannot explain which rows the formula counts. Before others rely on it, you mark the total “untested,” name the question and ask for a check. The number has arrived in its best clothes; your understanding is still getting ready.

Humility gives…

Colleagues can help with the actual uncertainty instead of discovering it after relying on the total. A well-placed question turns an impressive output into an opportunity to learn how it should be assessed.

Finding the balance

An acknowledged limit is information about the next step. It does not prove that the result is wrong, and checking a few invented cases does not certify every future use.

In ordinary life

An unfamiliar translation

Say which meaning you cannot assess before another person relies on the wording.

Generated code

Distinguish being able to obtain a plausible-looking answer from being able to judge what it will do.

Nearby virtues, different work

Discernment

Discernment assesses the reasons for a result; Humility admits where that assessment exceeds your understanding.

Open-Mindedness

Open-Mindedness then gives a relevant explanation or objection a fair hearing.

Recognizing a counterfeit

A counterfeit of Humility is saying “I am no expert” while presenting the total as ready for use. Let the named limit change the label, the claim or the reliance you invite.

How to cultivate Humility

• Identify the part of the result you cannot explain.
• Ask a question precise enough to guide the next check.
• Treat a correction as knowledge about the task rather than a verdict on your ability to learn.

Try it today

Draw an invented inventory with three items: two present and one awaiting return. Without using a tool or writing a formula, state what “total available” would need to include. Write the question you would ask if a generated answer did not reveal that choice. Use no real inventory or consequential decision.

Questions worth returning to

• Which part of this result can I actually explain?
• How should the limit change what I invite someone else to rely on?

Choose your practice

The situations on these pages are illustrative. These pages offer ideas for reflection and character practice, not professional advice. Choose practices suited to your circumstances and abilities. You may adapt, pause, or skip an exercise; putting yourself or someone else at risk is not proof of virtue.

Quotations and further reading

Read these passages in their original settings through the source links.

1. The truth is that we really do not know the answers to the problems on the explanatory level, even though in some directions of inquiry there may be promising speculations to be found.

   William James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology; and to Students on Some of Life’s Ideals
   II. the Stream of Consciousness · excerpt

   James distinguishes descriptive psychology from unsettled explanations. Acknowledging where an account stops is compatible with continuing inquiry; an unexplained result need not be presented as understood.

2. “And I am sure,” said Catherine, “I know so little of such things that I cannot judge whether it was cheap or dear.”

   Catherine Morland (fictional character), in Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
   Chapter 7 · excerpt

   Catherine admits that she cannot assess the value under discussion. She names the limit of her judgment without turning the admission into a claim that nothing can be known.

3. I felt no disposition to glorify myself upon the circumstance that there were other persons who did not know what I knew; nor had I ever flattered myself that my acquirements, whatever they might be, were any merit of mine: but, now when my attention was called to the subject, I felt that what my father had said respecting my peculiar advantages was exactly the truth and common sense of the matter, and it fixed my opinion and feeling from that time forward.

   John Stuart Mill, Autobiography
   Chapter I — Childhood and Early Education · excerpt

   Mill attributes his early attainments to unusual educational advantages. Recognizing what produced an achievement tempers the temptation to turn a polished result into proof of personal authority.

4. The greatest men have often many faults, and sometimes their faults are a part of their greatness; but such men are not, of course, to be looked upon by the student with absolute implicitness of faith.

   John Ruskin, The Elements of Drawing
   Note 266 · excerpt

   Ruskin warns students against giving even great painters implicit authority. Admiration for an accomplished result need not erase uncertainty about a particular judgment.

5. This Abstract, which I now publish, must necessarily be imperfect. I cannot here give references and authorities for my several statements; and I must trust to the reader reposing some confidence in my accuracy.

   Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species
   Introduction

   Darwin identifies a limitation of the account he is presenting instead of letting its finished form imply completeness. Naming the unresolved basis of a generated total likewise changes what others should understand it to establish.

6. Its residents must be emptied of all conceit of opinion and all self-assertion, and ready to arouse and interpret the public opinion of their neighborhood.

   Jane Addams, Twenty Years at Hull-House with Autobiographical Notes
   Chapter VI · excerpt

   Addams asks Settlement residents to set aside conceit of opinion so they can learn from the neighborhood. A contribution begins more honestly when its maker leaves room for knowledge they do not possess.

7. But, if we cannot gain much positive insight into one another, cannot we at least use our sense of our own blindness to make us more cautious in going over the dark places?

   William James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology; and to Students on Some of Life’s Ideals
   III. What Makes a Life Significant · excerpt

   James makes limited insight a reason for caution in judging other people. Awareness of an uncertain view should change how confidently it is offered.

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