I definitely also use the "if I have this question at least ten other people do but are afraid to ask" logic lots of times, true or not. It's a lot easier to be unafraid of failure if you don't consider yourself good at it ^_^. Way easier to learn if you're willing to look like an idiot, the hard part is getting people you already know to change the context in which they interact with you. That is the main reason I switched labs between undergrad and grad school - not being the "undergrad helper" for the first three years of grad school. I bet moving over to Google did similarly for you.