I don’t really know how the date Easter falls on the calendar is determined. I believe it may have something to do with being a certain number of weeks before or after vernal equinox or some such balderdash. Or maybe not. If I want to know on what date Easter falls I look at a calendar, but how that date was selected? No clue. The thing is, though, I’m perfectly okay with not knowing. That’s right, I’m not going to bother expending the energy to Google it. Not even going to ask on a website that is devoted to fighting ignorance how it is determined. If anyone posts an explanation on this thread I may read it, but am otherwise perfectly content to stew in ignorance concerning this particular fact.
I’m also content knowing absolutely freaking nothing about repairing crankshafts on 1963 Peugeot 404’s. Not a thing. No clue. If I owned one I’d be in a world of poo if anything ever happened to the crankshaft. Thankfully I do not. And am therefore blissfully ignorant.
Famous 18th century Egyptian musicians? Yeah, same thing. I don’t know squat about them either. Couldn’t name a single one. But you’re not gonna find me spending my evenings at the library researching it. Just don’t see a need for that kind of information in the future.
Are there certain types of ignorance that are acceptable to you personally?
Fashion
Most sports
Comic/super heroes and the associated movies
Celebs
Just not interested in these things and while I may encounter assorted trivia about one or more of them, none has ever piqued my interest.
In reality, no one can know everything. But there’s a difference in not bothering to learn something that holds no appeal and sticking your fingers in your ears going “lalalalalalalalalala” when presented with something that goes outside of what you *want *to believe.
I don’t know the first thing about Dungeons & Dragons or World of Warcraft or Minecraft or any of those RPGs. Might as well be speaking Japanese. Some nerd is laughing at me derisively right now, I’m sure. I’ll be ok tho. See, I can have sex to improve my mood! Yeah, I know, now I might as well be speaking Japanese.
A Hispanic friend of mine makes several delicious dishes after she returns from visiting her relatives that live in the country. I am aware that these wonderful meals contain pork however what actual parts of the pig and how those parts are prepared is a subject that I am highly content to remain ignorant of
[QUOTE=John Watson, describing Sherlock Holmes]
His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth traveled round the sun appeared to me to be such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it.
[/QUOTE]
I personally am content to be ignorant of local news. I find that I get along just fine without knowing which buildings are on fire, how many people were murdered today in what manner, and where a new traffic signal is being installed.
I do Web development and have a passing familiarity with SEO (search engine optimization) and know how to implement some things in code when asked.
But I know for a fact that there are whole firms devoted to SEO and those firms get paid outrageous sums of money to understand the ins-and-outs of it, keep up with the latest trends, understand all the buzzwords, digest analytics and ask for implementation of tactics.
So I am not going to learn anything more about SEO than I need to. Because I’m not paid to know that sort of stuff at any useful level. I’ll follow guidelines and I’ll set up the basics in order to keep your site from running afoul of any rules, but I’m not going to do anything that boosts your page rank because frankly I know enough to know how much I don’t know. You can hire me to do it but I’ll just contract it out.
Yeah, I waved the white flag on that shit when I was a kid. As a result, every locker room conversation I’ve ever had at the gym has been badly lopsided. My contributions are limited to “nah, I missed it” or “oh yeah? Huh.”
Verily. Back to the noxious pit whence ye came, degenerate minstrels, with all your cacophonous apparatus! Faugh!
