The ability to ask "stupid" questions without feeling embarrassed is a superpower IMO.
I had the sweetest manager once. Someone stared talking about iphone and she [1] casually asked "what is iphone?" (this is after 6-7 months after iPhone was launched). Everyone's jaw dropped ... what? In which world u live in? ... to which she said with a wide smile and not an ounce of embarrassment .. "what? I don't know what iphone is?"
But she was otherwise so good in every other aspect ...
[1] She is/was mother of 4 kids and that left her very little time for anything else.
Once I got over the embarrassment hurdle of asking “dumb” questions, I grew a lot in my early career. Then people saw me as highly engaged, and my questions and understanding got better over time.
In particular, I encourage all the new joiners on my team to play the “newbie” card to allow them to ask as many questions as they want.
“Hey, new guy here… what is X?”
I even tell them to set a goal of one question per day if it helps.
I think it’s so important not to be passive because you absorb / understand less that way.
After 2 months working at a new department, i awkwardly asked my boss what the department acronym stood for. He stared at me confused, and couldn't figure it out; hes worked there for 30 years.
Technology isn't intuitive and there ares loads of things to remember. Sometimes the dumb question is needed by more than the person that asked.
I had the sweetest manager once. Someone stared talking about iphone and she [1] casually asked "what is iphone?" (this is after 6-7 months after iPhone was launched). Everyone's jaw dropped ... what? In which world u live in? ... to which she said with a wide smile and not an ounce of embarrassment .. "what? I don't know what iphone is?"
But she was otherwise so good in every other aspect ...
[1] She is/was mother of 4 kids and that left her very little time for anything else.