Nigeria, May 18 -- The philosophy of "I know that I know nothing" cuts deeper than it sounds. It was Socrates who insisted that learning begins the moment we admit our ignorance, and that admission is the spark for humility, thirst, and curiosity, the very things that give birth to innovation. Yet Socrates never believed knowledge was locked away for a chosen few. For him, there was no such thing as a truly unintelligent person, only people who had not yet discovered what they could learn, and what they might know better than anyone else.

I tested this idea in an earlier essay, Is There Such a Thing as a "Dull" or Unintelligent Person?My argument was simple: we constantly seek out others because we cannot be equipped for everything. The...