Second-guess it?

Reader question:

Please explain this sentence, with “second guess it” in particular:

I don’t know about everyone else, but when I get medical advice from a doctor, I never second-guess it.

My comments:

The speaker has total trust in a doctor’s advice and suggestions, never questioning any of them.

The speaker just automatically assumes that a doctor’s opinion is completely right. He takes a doctor’s word without ever thinking twice about it.

To second-guess something is to, quite literally, think twice about it twice, i.e. to reconsider.

Ever heard of the saying: Think twice before you leap? That means before you make a big decision, such as, literally speaking, jumping over a wall or off a cliff, think twice and make sure you can land safely on your feet.

In that situation, you think twice because you don’t trust your first guess or estimation – that you can do it without ever hurting yourself.

Then, on second thought, you realize that the wall may be a little too tall and the cliff may be a little too steep, that you may run the risk of hurting yourself.

Basically, that’s what to second-guess something means. It means you begin to think twice about it, to have doubts about it, to question whether there’s a better option, even to be critical of it after weighing all the pros and cons.

Second-guess or second guess (two words) originates from the game of baseball, according to Phrases.org.uk, explaining as follows:

The umpire in a baseball game used to be called, rather unkindly, ‘the guesser’. People who were continually telling the guesser, the manager or the players what they were doing wrong were known as ‘secondguessers’ and were so defined in the Sporting News Record Book, 1937:

Secondguesser, one who is continually criticizing moves of players and manager.

There’s a lot of doubt to throw about around the game of baseball, apparently. The umpire is very “unkindly” referred to as “guessers”. In other words, the umpire’s decisions and judgments are based on mere guesses, implying that the umpire may not be sure about them, either.

Managers, players and members of the audience, on the other hand, are known as “secondguessers”, who are always doubting, questioning and criticizing the judgments of the umpire.

To second guess is, in sum and in short, to think twice and cast doubt over one’s first guess or decision.

As an idiom, “second guess” implies, as you can guess, criticism, doubt and disapproval.

And here are media examples:

1. NFL locker rooms are full of legendary stories, but some stand out for their sheer absurdity. The three-time Super Bowl champion sneaks around Gillette Stadium’s grounds, quietly stalking turkeys.

That’s exactly what former New England Patriots offensive tackle Matt Light was up to. Ummm! until he got caught by none other than the king of discipline himself, Bill Belichick. What followed was a moment so hilarious that even Light had to second-guess his life choices.

Light, known for his rugged personality, had a habit of arriving at the stadium in the wee hours of the morning but not to study film or lift weights. Instead, he was there for wild turkeys.

“I had been watching this turkey for a while,” Light later revealed. “I knew exactly where he was roosting.” He wasn’t just winging it – this was a calculated hunt.

And just like in football, the strategy paid off. He successfully took down the turkey, proud of his early-morning feat.

Everything seemed fine – until Bill Belichick got wind of the situation. Security had spotted him, and soon enough, Belichick himself came calling. As Light recounted on a podcast, the Patriots’ head coach approached him in the cafeteria with a look only Belichick can give.

“What the hell is this?” Belichick asked, pointing toward the fridge.

Light, still feeling pretty good about his early-morning success, explained the situation. “Coach, I took down a turkey this morning and put it in there for later.”

Belichick wasn’t amused.

“You cannot have a weapon on stadium property,” he fired back. “No bows, no guns, nothing. That’s it.” Light tried to clarify. “It’s a bow, not a gun.”

Didn’t matter. In Belichick’s world, rules are rules. Light had officially been benched from his own hunting ground.

From that moment on, Light knew his days of sneaky turkey hunts at the stadium were over. The legendary offensive tackle may have been able to keep defenders off Tom Brady, but he wasn’t able to escape the iron rule of Belichick. “That was the last time I ever did that,” he admitted with a laugh.

But he still got the last laugh in a way – after all, how many people can say they’ve been personally reprimanded by Bill Belichick over a turkey?

This story is the perfect example of why Belichick is one of the most successful coaches in NFL history. No detail, no matter how small, escapes his attention.

Whether it’s film study, player discipline, or… stadium hunting rules, he ensures that every Patriot follows the system.

- Bill Belichick Once Made Matt Light Second-Guess Himself After Campus Hunting Incident, CollegeFootballNetwork.com, March 23, 2024.

2. Amid the messy ongoing divorce between the president and the world’s richest man, this much is already clear: Donald Trump has sole custody of the House GOP.

Republican lawmakers are making clear that, if forced to choose, it’s Trump – not Elon Musk – they’re sticking by as leaders race to contain the fallout for their “one big, beautiful bill.”

Even Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who helms a House panel inspired by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative, blasted Musk’s public attacks on Trump as “unwarranted” and criticized his “lashing out on the internet.”

“America voted for Donald Trump on Nov. 4, 2024 – every single vote mattered just as much as the other,” Greene said in a brief interview. “And whether it was $1 that was donated or hundreds of millions of dollars, the way I see it, everybody’s the same.”

Like many Americans, GOP members watched Thursday’s online exchange with a sense of car-crash-like fascination. Many shared that they hoped Musk and Trump could somehow patch things up. But many – including some of the former DOGE chief’s biggest backers on Capitol Hill – were wholly unsurprised to see the billionaire suddenly cut down to size after months of chatter about who was really calling the shots at the White House.

“It’s President Trump, not President Musk,” said one lawmaker granted anonymity to speak frankly about prevailing opinions inside the House GOP.

Speaker Mike Johnson made no secret of where he stands on the public breakup.

He told reporters Friday that he hoped the two men “reconcile” and that it would be “good for the party and the country if all this worked out.” But in the nearly same breath, Johnson quickly reaffirmed his allegiance to the president and issued a warning to Musk.

“Do not doubt, do not second-guess and don’t ever challenge the president of the United States, Donald Trump,” Johnson said. “He is the leader of the party. He is the most consequential political figure of this generation and probably the modern era. And he’s doing an excellent job for the people.”

- House Republicans make their choice: ‘It’s President Trump, not President Musk’, Politico.com, June 06, 2025.

3. Gabrielle Union isn’t immune to buyer’s remorse.

The Bring It On star revealed her first big splurge after finding success in Hollywood, though she called the purchase “so stupid” in hindsight.

“I’m like, ‘Oh, I’ve made it when I have a Mazda,’” she recalled during a panel discussion at the American Black Film Festival in Miami June 12, according to People. “My dad’s like, ‘Don’t buy a brand new car. It depreciates the second you drive it off the lot.’”

Despite her father’s advice, the 52-year-old said she proceeded to purchase a Mazda Miata sports car, though she admitted she eventually came to second guess her choice of upholstery due to the sweltering California heat.

“Lemme tell you about leather seats in Los Angeles,” she went on. “Do you know I scorched myself every time I got out? Yeah, that was my first purchase.”

Gabrielle added that, as her dad had predicted, “It depreciated the second I drove it off the lot.”

These days, the actress is imparting wisdom to her own kids including daughter Kaavia, 6, whom she shares with husband Dwyane Wade, along with her stepchildren Zaire, 23, Zaya, 18, and Xavier, 11, and Dwyane’s nephew Dahveon Morris, 23. In fact, she recently shared that her approach to parenting isn’t one-size-fits-all.

“Each child gets a different version of me because they need a different version of me,” she told Marie Claire in May. “I couldn’t say the things that I say to Zaya in the way that I say them to Zaire. At times I can be softer and more lenient, and then there's times where I am just straight-up bad cop because the dynamics change.”

And when it comes to raising her family with the NBA star, Gabrielle emphasized that it’s a team effort.

“I rely heavily on our village and there is zero shame in that,” she continued. “Not only do we have their long-term nanny, we’ve had nannies, we have family members, we have aunties, we have tutors, teachers, therapists. It’s all hands on deck.”

- Gabrielle Union Reveals How She Spent Her First Major Paycheck, EOnline.com, June 22, 2025.

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About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：张欣）