# Baffling gaps in knowledge **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 22, 2006, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baffling-gaps-in-knowledge/377423 "2006-10-22T06:43:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baffling-gaps-in-knowledge/377423/1 "2006-10-22T06:43:09Z")
So I was just at a games party, and we played a game in which a question (constructed through entertaining means that are irrelevant to this post) is asked, and someone tries to answer it. The guy answering is a mid-twenties guy who has (I’m pretty sure) lived in the US all his life. He’s VERY smart, as evidenced by the fact that Google just hired him as a programmer. He had no answer, and in fact gave up instantly, when asked: “Who is a conservative radio douchebag?” When everyone said “obviously it’s Rush Limbaugh”, he seemed to have no real idea who Rush Limbaugh was. Later, he seemed equally baffled by… Gorbachev. How can someone not know at least basic facts about those two people? ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baffling-gaps-in-knowledge/377423/2 "2006-10-22T07:16:35Z")
Eh. Just because you know something doesn’t mean someone else does. He probably knows about something you don’t, so it evens out. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baffling-gaps-in-knowledge/377423/3 "2006-10-22T07:17:18Z")
The Rush Limbaugh thing I can kind of understand, if he’s the kind of guy who’s never been plugged into mainstream culture very much, and isn’t very interested in politics. Still, it is a bit surprising. The Gorbachev thing is a little more disconcerting. I’m in my mid-twenties as well, and while I don’t have too many memories of the fall of the USSR (and wasn’t too interested in politics when it was happening), I can’t imagine not being at least peripherally aware of who Gorbachev was. My own example: when I was in college I studied abroad in Vienna for a semester. Before I left, I was stunned that several people at my school did not appear to have even basic facts about the city – a couple people asked what country it was in. This amazed me – I went to a highly ranked college (regularly in the top ten on those annual lists – which apparently doesn’t mean squat) and I would have thought that everyone at my school would have at least basic facts or associations about the city: at a minimum, that it’s the capital of Austria (and former capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), that it has a long musical tradition (Mozart, et al), and that its citizens speak German. Doesn’t seem like too much to expect – but, I guess not. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baffling-gaps-in-knowledge/377423/4 "2006-10-22T07:17:43Z")
Oh, and I’m curious what the “entertaining means irrelevant to this post” were. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baffling-gaps-in-knowledge/377423/5 "2006-10-22T07:26:05Z")
[QUOTE=Rigamarole] Eh. Just because you know something doesn’t mean someone else does. He probably knows about something you don’t, so it evens out. [/QUOTE] Well, obviously. And completely missing the point. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baffling-gaps-in-knowledge/377423/6 "2006-10-22T07:33:50Z")
[QUOTE=Rigamarole] Oh, and I’m curious what the “entertaining means irrelevant to this post” were. 🙂 [/QUOTE] **Chain Reaction** , as described [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=2575361&postcount=63) . ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baffling-gaps-in-knowledge/377423/7 "2006-10-22T15:28:28Z")
Hmm I would have thought “douchebag”=female=Ann Coulter, but I dunno if she has a radio show of her own… ---
**Author:** ![ASAKMOTSD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@ASAKMOTSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASAKMOTSD)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baffling-gaps-in-knowledge/377423/8 "2006-10-22T15:55:18Z")
[QUOTE=John DiFool] Hmm I would have thought “douchebag”=female=Ann Coulter, but I dunno if she has a radio show of her own… [/QUOTE] She would be “Lady Douchebag” to Rush’s “Lord Douchebag” ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baffling-gaps-in-knowledge/377423/9 "2006-10-22T16:11:47Z")
[Beloit College Mindset List](http://www.beloit.edu/~pubaff/mindset/). ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baffling-gaps-in-knowledge/377423/10 "2006-10-22T16:30:56Z")
I grew up around a bunch of PHDs. A great group of really smart people. Some of those people, who were absolutely brilliant in their field, had no clue about some stuff most people take for granted. I figured it out after a while. They were so into what they were doing that they did not pay any attention whatsoever to the outside world. They also tended to like thinking, for example studying Go or Chess instead of watching t.v. for fun. I remember going to one ladies house and being totally shocked because she didn’t own a t.v. I was about 12 at the time. Instead of a t.v. she had a huge library filled with physics books and possibly every murder mystery ever written. She was a great physicist, in fact at the time she was the best in her field, but really clueless about the rest of the world. She found what she liked and worked really hard at it. It is just a matter of focus for some people. Slee ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baffling-gaps-in-knowledge/377423/11 "2006-10-22T16:38:03Z")
[QUOTE=MaxTheVool] So I was just at a games party, and we played a game in which a question (constructed through entertaining means that are irrelevant to this post) is asked, and someone tries to answer it. The guy answering is a mid-twenties guy who has (I’m pretty sure) lived in the US all his life. He’s VERY smart, as evidenced by the fact that Google just hired him as a programmer. He had no answer, and in fact gave up instantly, when asked: “Who is a conservative radio douchebag?” When everyone said “obviously it’s Rush Limbaugh”, he seemed to have no real idea who Rush Limbaugh was. Later, he seemed equally baffled by… Gorbachev. How can someone not know at least basic facts about those two people? [/QUOTE] Ar well there ya go see?these city slickers think they know it all don` ay?But they don` kno`nuffing`bout the people in your village do they?O`l Rush aint too big in these parts ,be`m you know old Tim grundy ?everyone knows `Im in our parish? This is a classic case of shot in the foot syndrome ,while expostulating about this guys lack of sophistication you actually exposed your own parochialism ,this side of the Atlantic nobody s heard of the man outside of homesick expat Americans and I doubt if anyones actually tuned into him.Just as you most probably have no idea who the BBC radio 4 presenters are ,or Moskva radio or radio Nippon s spokesmen but realising that we are not the centre of the universe we wouldn`t expect you to !And yes you did make your post in an international forum where ever the Google guy lives .Travel broadens the mind !why dont you give it a go ? ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baffling-gaps-in-knowledge/377423/12 "2006-10-22T16:51:47Z")
What gets me are the ones that do not know a car has a spare tire and where it is located much less how to change a flat. \*This post is for those who live in a highly mechanized society and live where personal auto transport is the norm. Troglodytes from New York City and Downtown London that are born, live and die within the same 16 block square are exempt from the ‘disdain’ I am casting willy nilly into the either. \* ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baffling-gaps-in-knowledge/377423/13 "2006-10-22T17:34:29Z")
[QUOTE=Lust4Life] Ar well there ya go see?these city slickers think they know it all don` ay?But they don` kno`nuffing`bout the people in your village do they?O`l Rush aint too big in these parts ,be`m you know old Tim grundy ?everyone knows `Im in our parish? This is a classic case of shot in the foot syndrome ,while expostulating about this guys lack of sophistication you actually exposed your own parochialism ,this side of the Atlantic nobody s heard of the man outside of homesick expat Americans and I doubt if anyones actually tuned into him.Just as you most probably have no idea who the BBC radio 4 presenters are ,or Moskva radio or radio Nippon s spokesmen but realising that we are not the centre of the universe we wouldn`t expect you to !And yes you did make your post in an international forum where ever the Google guy lives .Travel broadens the mind !why dont you give it a go ? [/QUOTE] :rolleyes: Sorry, this is a lame, trollish attempt to use the OP for your weird anti-American agenda. It doesn’t even make sense. The OP was not surprised that someone from outside the US hadn’t heard of Rush Limbaugh (as your response suggests); rather, she explicitly states that the guy in question has apparently lived in the US all his life. She would not have even bothered stating that if she believed (as you apparently interpreted the last question) that everyone in the world should know who Limbaugh is. So lay off. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baffling-gaps-in-knowledge/377423/14 "2006-10-22T17:40:28Z")
I once polled the nurses on a unit where I worked. Not one knew the temperatures at which water froze or boiled, in Fahrenheit _or_ in Celsius. ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baffling-gaps-in-knowledge/377423/15 "2006-10-22T19:06:58Z")
[QUOTE=Lust4Life] Ar well there ya go see?these city slickers think they know it all don` ay?But they don` kno`nuffing`bout the people in your village do they?O`l Rush aint too big in these parts ,be`m you know old Tim grundy ?everyone knows `Im in our parish? This is a classic case of shot in the foot syndrome ,while expostulating about this guys lack of sophistication you actually exposed your own parochialism ,this side of the Atlantic nobody s heard of the man outside of homesick expat Americans and I doubt if anyones actually tuned into him.Just as you most probably have no idea who the BBC radio 4 presenters are ,or Moskva radio or radio Nippon s spokesmen but realising that we are not the centre of the universe we wouldn`t expect you to !And yes you did make your post in an international forum where ever the Google guy lives .Travel broadens the mind !why dont you give it a go ? [/QUOTE] I’m visualizing Dick Van Dyke in “Mary Poppins”, here. ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baffling-gaps-in-knowledge/377423/16 "2006-10-22T19:15:19Z")
One day a woman in my office, another coworker and I were discussing Seattle and Washington state. The other coworker mentioned a friend who collected rocks from Mount St. Helens. The first coworker says “Isn’t that dangerous? Aren’t lava rocks _radioactive_?” :dubious: I was flabbergasted. Not only is she well educated with a Masters degree, this woman actually used to live in Washington state. I’ve got to confess, the statement actually lowered my opinion of her and her intelligence. ---
**Author:** ![troubledwater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@troubledwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troubledwater)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baffling-gaps-in-knowledge/377423/17 "2006-10-22T19:57:59Z")
This is more of a horrible misconception than a gap - I, too attended a supposedly selective sort of college. I majored in Geography. Near the beginning of my senior year, one of the freshman (born and raised in WAshington, D.C.) announced that “Geography isn’t important” and I made it my business for the rest of the year to correct her impression (she took my quest good-naturedly, btw). Near the end of the year, we were in a conversation that turned to Canada. She said, “Canada . . . didn’t we buy that?” I waited to see if this was some sort of clever stab at the insularity of our fellow Americans, but it wasn’t, it was a sad example. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baffling-gaps-in-knowledge/377423/18 "2006-10-22T20:08:40Z")
[QUOTE=Shoshana] I once polled the nurses on a unit where I worked. Not one knew the temperatures at which water froze or boiled, in Fahrenheit _or_ in Celsius. [/QUOTE] :eek: ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baffling-gaps-in-knowledge/377423/19 "2006-10-22T20:14:13Z")
[QUOTE=GusNSpot] Troglodytes from New York City and Downtown London that are born, live and die within the same 16 block square are exempt from the ‘disdain’ I am casting willy nilly into the either. \* [/QUOTE] Hey, now. Just a few months ago I moved from Queens _all the way to Brooklyn!_ ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baffling-gaps-in-knowledge/377423/20 "2006-10-22T20:21:34Z")
Actually, I would say that the OP’s acquaintance’s hiring by Google would make his odd patch of ignorance _more_ explainable. The stereotypical "geek’ is often extremely tightly focused on learning more and more about less and less. I worked with a guy who took over the management of a high tech computer center where he had about a dozen kids working for him. I always rated him as pretty bright, based on his ability to solve complex IT business problems efficiently, but he explained that all the kids who were reporting to him were much brighter. On one project,they were working with a bunch of files with the abbreviation I C, so, of course, he named the test I C Library “test.icl”. He said that when he would make a joke about the file, he had to explain to every kid why it was humorous. (He did not consider it uproariously funny, but they did not even understand _why_ it _might_ be funny.) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baffling-gaps-in-knowledge/377423.md?page=2)