Yes, this was a real question asked on Quora! I also have feeling that I’m making this more complicated than it needs to be. But that’s why I blog it out 
OK here’s my crack at an answer:
If the question is seeking a binary or factual answer: “what day is this?” then I don’t feel much different knowing the correct answer.
If the question is seeking a subjective or multivariate/multifaceted answer (and most of the big questions are, for example: “are you happy?” “what’s our purpose in life?” “what is life?” “what’s the next big thing in {subject}?”) and I supply an answer that I believe was “the correct” answer, then I’d probably feel ambivalent almost immediately.
It doesn’t help knowing the answer to a question when
- - it is based on my limitation in knowledge or insight
- - it is based on my biases and prejudices
- - it prevents the other person from arriving at the answer himself
To address specifically one of the comments clarifying this question, knowing the answer to a question may sometimes make me feel:
- smarter, more confident, closer to a goal, like a winner of an argument, selfish pleasure
But then this alerts me to just how limited my knowledge and insight may be, and how strong my biases and prejudices are – that I’d think I have “THE correct” answer to a complex question.
There is however a feeling of personal satisfaction in an attempt to process my thoughts and arriving at an answer, which may be “a correct” one for certain audiences under certain conditions.
Hence, it does help knowing the answer to a question when
- it alerts me to my limitations, biases, and prejudices
- it gives me a sense of personal satisfaction in thinking through the question itself and in formulating an answer
- it gives me a way to help the other person arrive at the answer himself (for example, by supplying a clue; if I don’t know the answer I can’t help with a clue that bridges the question to the answer)
[not unlike a feeling of satisfaction working through this complex question, and I don't even think I've supplied 'the' correct answer!]
P.S. In answering this question I’m implicitly admitting that I think I actually know the correct answer to the question, or have known correct answers to other questions, which goes to know that the truth is probably closer to “I know that I don’t know” more often than I realize.
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