I have been learning to make use of the skill to acknowledge what I don't know that I don't know. Knowledge is different from all other kinds of resources, as we have been told, because it constantly makes itself obsolete.

Last week, one of our talented fellows asked me what's the reason of stopping salbutamol , a short-acting "reliever" medication for chest tightness, in case our patients are coughing up blood from the lungs. I took a deep breath and then told her I don't really know. Although I quoted the evidence from an article that appeared in the British Medical Journal 28 years ago, the honest answer should be kind of old wives' tale. That's what I had been taught soon after my becoming a doctor.

Looking back, I reflected on what I had learned about the need to suspend any dogma, however hard earned it may be. Be flexible and admit I don’t have all the answers. To borrow an idea from Nance Guilmartin , the more we think we know, the less we truly know.