"When nerds are unbearable it's usually because they're trying too hard to seem smart. But the smarter they are, the less pressure they feel to act smart. So as a rule you can recognize genuinely smart people by their ability to say things like 'I don't know,' 'Maybe you're right,' and 'I don't understand x well enough.'"

"This technique doesn't always work, because people can be influenced by their environment. In the MIT CS department, there seems to be a tradition of acting like a brusque know-it-all. I'm told it derives ultimately from Marvin Minsky, in the same way the classic airline pilot manner is said to derive from Chuck Yeager. Even genuinely smart people start to act this way there, so you have to make allowances."

"It helped us to have Robert Morris, who is one of the readiest to say 'I don't know' of anyone I've met. (At least, he was before he became a professor at MIT.) No one dared put on attitude around Robert, because he was obviously smarter than they were and yet had zero attitude himself."

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html

EDIT: formating

Why is this more useful? It shows that I am confident that I can get the task done, but some more time must be allotted for the research. "I don't know" is basically giving up.

I totally disagree about the 'can do' attitude statement, in case that wasn't already clear. It's absolutely vital to a good working environment that employees are actively trying to do their jobs, instead of giving up and forcing someone else to do it. Asking for help is expected. Giving up is useless.

Indeed! That superficial allure is the technical person's user-talk reaction in my opinion. It's that very reason why I don't talk to users that way because, to some extent, it's condescending: something which I try very hard not to be.

Maybe I'm an idealist, but I find being honest gets a lot more things done than sugar-coating everything. It's probably why I'm also not good at politics.