In my humble opinion…

Some phrases used as a prelude to a strongly held opinion, usually by the person making the decisions:

• This is outside my area of competence, but...
• In my humble opinion...
• Correct me if I'm wrong...

Within our circle of competence, we know exactly what we don’t know. We know what is knowable and unknowable. When we are outside our circle of competence, we should try to learn from the experience of others and rely on people we trust.

The problem is, however, that many times we don’t really want to know what we are good and bad at. It can be hard to accept that we are outside our circle of competence even if we say we are.