KNOW IT ALL

I wanted to write a short piece about what a “know-it-all” is. I’ve heard family, friends, and strangers refer to individuals with this personality trait, yet I’ve never met a person labeled as such. I’ve come across some intelligent people in my life, but never anyone bragging or exploiting their intelligence to impress me.

Wanting to dig further on this subject, a little voice in the back of my head kept saying, ask Miss Purdy to give you her definition. For those who don’t know her, Miss Purdy is my AI writing helpmate. Thus far, I’ve only used her talents for grammar corrections and to point out my typos and word misspellings.

The Miss Purdy namesake hails from the 1963 movie, “The Nutty Professor,” starring comedian Jerry Lewis as Professor Julius Kemp, and beautiful actress Stella Stevens as the gullible yet intelligent Miss Purdy. This was one of my favorite movies from back then, and what red-blooded American boy didn’t want a blonde-haired Miss Purdy teaching them?

Instructing my helpmate to come up with a condensed explanation for a know-it-all, she offered the following.

“To be called a ‘know-it-all’ is to be recognized as someone who seems to have an answer for everything—often delivered with unwavering confidence, whether or not it’s actually correct. This trait can be both endearing and exasperating, as the know-it-all’s eagerness to share facts may overshadow others’ voices. At its heart, being a know-it-all is less about omniscience and more about the irresistible urge to prove one’s breadth of knowledge, sometimes at the expense of humility or open-mindedness.”

Seeing that interpretation, certain political figures instantly came to mind, yet for the sake of keeping this article free of bias, I’ll not name those elected officials I see fit to wear the title. Readers can fill in the blanks with public servants they view as being know-it-alls, and I’ll use as an example, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Thanks to AI helpmates like Miss Purdy, know-it-alls are now becoming more acceptable in society, with my wife unknowingly being one, in a good sense of the definition. Not owning one of those smartphones, I merely ask Joleen for the answer to a question, and within a few seconds, she has it, after tapping in a few words on her miniaturized keyboard to a non-left-leaning search engine.

No longer can I impress her with bogus information regarding most subjects, as the correct data is readily available at her fingertips. It’s caused me to softly say, “I’m not sure?” instead of shooting from the hip and constantly getting things wrong.

Looking back at Miss Purdy’s explanation of a know-it-all, especially the part about certain people tossing out bogus information like hand grenades, it appears I might’ve known one of these windbags after all, and he’s wearing my pants.