As a junior economics reporter, I was once given an assignment which made me panic. I had been asked to write a story about an economic concept I didn’t really understand. No one else from my team was around. Googling it only left me more confused. Just then, Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator, walked past my desk. I took a deep breath and asked him. He explained it clearly in a few sentences, and if he thought I was silly for having to ask, he never made me feel that way.Ever since then, I have been a big believer in asking “stupid” questions, by which I mean questions that you fear make you look stupid. But I’m worried this is a dying art.
作為一名初級經濟記者，我曾經接到一項讓我恐慌的任務。我被要求寫一篇關于一個我并不真正理解的經濟學概念的文章。我找不到團隊里的其他人求助。用谷歌(Google)搜索這個概念只是讓我更加困惑了。就在這時，英國《金融時報》首席經濟評論員馬丁?沃爾夫(Martin Wolf)走過我的辦公桌。我深吸一口氣，向他求問。他用幾句話就解釋清楚了，如果他覺得我問這個問題很傻的話，也完全讓我沒有感覺到。