One of my students apologized after asking what they called “a stupid question.” I couldn’t convince them that the question was better than half the answers I’d heard that week. The older I get, the less impressed I am by people who answer quickly. The most important quality of a student is not never making mistakes, but admitting confusion and being willing to dig deeper into it. I wish schools would reward that a little more. The students who keep interrupting my classes to ask about the one thing I didn’t even prepare for are usually the ones I remember years later. They’re also the ones who seem to build the most interesting careers. I don’t think it’s because they were necessarily smarter, although some of them are. I think they dare to dig into something, have the courage to admit they have room to improve, and it really helps.