Little Miss Know-It-All should be my nickname. I’m not ashamed to know a little bit about everything and a lot about a few things. My problem is that I hanker for opportunities to show off my knowledge and to tell people when they’re wrong.

When I was in California, my dad mentioned the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918 but mistakenly said that it happened in the 1940’s. Of course I had to correct him. My sister wanted to know why the date was so important. I have to agree, it seems like an insignificant piece of trivia. I said it was for my own benefit because I wanted to make sure we were talking about the same thing, but actually, it was more of a reflex. I always correct people whenever I can.

Why does it matter? As long as it doesn’t hurt anyone, why bother correcting other people’s mistakes? I’ve wasted so much time and energy getting into arguments trying to prove that I’m right and they’re wrong. Other times, I spend hours mulling over how to write a “helpful” e-mail that won’t come off as condescending, yet lets the recipient know that I know more than they do. I’ve also spent countless hours on the Internet looking up obscure facts just to prove a point.

In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell defines mavens as people who gather, evaluate, and disseminate information. That’s what I want to be. Mavens are the ones people trust to get things done whether it be calling the internet service engineer every hour to check on the progress of internet maintence, informing managers that the number of mosquitoes in their restaurant poses a potential health risk, or letting Crest know that their new toothpaste dries up the mouth (all things that I have done).

So which am I–maven or Little Miss Know-It-All? I’d guess that more people think I’m the latter.

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