# So why is geography so important for me to have memorized? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 4, 2012, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759 "2012-03-04T22:37:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759/41 "2012-03-05T02:18:31Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > I’ll wager that makes a lot of things moot. Not to mention mute. OP, sorry for missing the Iran bit. I still think celebrating your ignorance of stuff that even smart children should know - not as a result of education, but due to general world awareness - isn’t something to be proud of. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759/42 "2012-03-05T02:22:57Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Not to mention mute. > > OP, sorry for missing the Iran bit. > > I still think celebrating your ignorance of stuff that even smart children should know - not as a result of education, but due to general world awareness - isn’t something to be proud of. I don’t get where people here are getting the **proud** bit. I’m not **proud** I don’t know it, in fact, I wish I could know everything under the sun and I’ve always felt kind of inferior for having so much trouble recalling spatial relationships. The point I was making is more that I wasn’t convinced that, assuming you try and be relatively well informed, why geography is so much more important than, say the engineering behind a basic car (after all, you probably use it every day), or the ability to instantly solve trigonometry problems in your head, or the production and analysis of laffer curves, or any other such thing that you could memorize if it really behooved you to do so. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759/43 "2012-03-05T02:28:15Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > If you don’t know that, say, Israel has a border with Syria, and you don’t know how China’s support of Syria affects its relationship to other states that border Israel, and you get into a conversation with someone about these subjects, what are you going to do? Push some buttons on your phone to clarify which country is where? I would. For a conversation like that, it sounds like a very good idea. I don’t know shit about Syria. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759/44 "2012-03-05T02:38:15Z")
You might also find yourself playing Risk one day, then BAM! Kamchatka Surprise! No one to blame but yourself. I find geography interesting, actually; especially in the context of war or conflict (modern or historical). I think part of the problem for most, is the unfamiliar jumble of shapes and odd or similar sounding names that makes certain peoples’ eyes glaze over. But if you really begin to follow global affairs, or are just curious enough to learn your Bolivia from your Bulgaria, and your Uzbekistan from your Kazakhstan, you’d be surprised how quick these quilted countries can crystallize in your head. It just really takes the nebulous quality out of hearing and discussing these places into something more concrete in your mind, and I think really visualizing some geopolitical issues allowing you a greater opportunity in understanding that you might not make connections with otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759/45 "2012-03-05T02:47:18Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Uzebekistan is close to the same size as Iraq, and I could tell you what region of the world its in, but if you asked me to name the neighbouring countries or point to its outline on a map, I could only make an educated guess. An educated guess would be something like, “Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Afghanistan”. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759/46 "2012-03-05T03:21:30Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > I’m sorry, I don’t know what to do about my stupidity. Should I hurt myslef? I’m really really sorry. I’ll make sure I don’t graduate college so I can’t burden jobs with me. But I don’t know what else to do, I’m really sorry everyone. No,you shouldn’t hurt yourself over it. Hyperbole much? You already acknowledge your basic problem. Like any self-actualizing adult, you should take steps to correct it. There are fun geography quizzes on the web that will help you improve your skills in just a few hours. The basic problem with ignorance is that you don’t know what you don’t know until you learn it. You have to take the word from others that geographical knowledge will help you a great deal life. I am not the biggest expert at it either but I try to improve all the time. It is pretty. Can you put all fifty states on a map? That is a really useful skill. Branch out from there into Europe and the Middle East. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759/47 "2012-03-05T04:10:23Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > . . . There are fun geography quizzes on the web that will help you improve your skills in just a few hours. . . . Keen! I just Googled “Geography Quiz” and got a handful. Now I’m learning how little I really knew! Humility at the click of a mouse! I thought I knew geography pretty well…but… It’s a whole bloomin’ world! ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759/48 "2012-03-05T04:32:18Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > Well, I don’t talk to people, so I guess it’s kind of moot. I’m guessing there are a lot more things wrong than just a lack of knowledge about geography. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759/49 "2012-03-05T04:33:43Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I’m guessing there are a lot more things wrong than just a lack of knowledge about geography. Yes, diagnosed depression, general anxiety, social anxiety, and social phobia. Edit: I do talk to people – I have an annoyingly large number of research meetings (and office hours, etc) a week. I just can’t approach people recreationally so nothing aside from business at hand ever comes up. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759/50 "2012-03-05T04:36:57Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Keen! I just Googled “Geography Quiz” and got a handful. > > Now I’m learning how little I really knew! Humility at the click of a mouse! I thought I knew geography pretty well…but… It’s a whole bloomin’ world! Someday I will break 100 on the sporcle countries of the world quiz. At my current rate, that will probably be somewhere around 2020. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759/51 "2012-03-05T04:37:09Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Keen! I just Googled “Geography Quiz” and got a handful. > > Now I’m learning how little I really knew! Humility at the click of a mouse! I thought I knew geography pretty well…but… It’s a whole bloomin’ world! Might I suggest [this Flash game](http://www.kongregate.com/games/crafics/globetrotter-xl)? I find it strangely addictive as well as mildly educational. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759/52 "2012-03-05T04:40:48Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > Yes, diagnosed depression, general anxiety, social anxiety, and social phobia. > > Edit: I do talk to people – I have an annoyingly large number of research meetings (and office hours, etc) a week. I just can’t approach people recreationally so nothing aside from business at hand ever comes up. No one calls talking to people recreational. It’s just life. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759/53 "2012-03-05T04:43:59Z")
Crashed and burned on level 5. In my defense, spelling was where I excelled in rote memorization, not geography. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759/54 "2012-03-05T04:46:58Z")
Well back in the '80s Ronald Reagan tried to make the argument that we had to be in Nicaragua because the Soviets could use Nicaragua to launch a land invasion because Nicaragua was only 2 hours away from America. If you knew geography you would know if his claim was bogus or not. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759/55 "2012-03-05T04:52:36Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > I don’t get where people here are getting the **proud** bit. I’m not **proud** Well you took steps to proclaim on a messageboard that it isn’t important to you. Perhaps not proud, then, but certainly more than an internalised shame. > [@](#): > > The point I was making is more that I wasn’t convinced that, assuming you try and be relatively well informed, why geography is so much more important than, say the engineering behind a basic car (after all, you probably use it every day), or the ability to instantly solve trigonometry problems in your head, or the production and analysis of laffer curves, or any other such thing that you could memorize if it really behooved you to do so. Because you vote. You vote in a country that is one of the most powerful in the world. It’s certainly the most internationally belligerent of late. Basic knowledge of what’s going on where your leaders diddle their military and financial fingers would be a (admittedly faint) hope from the rest of us out here in the world, to inform your voting based not only on domestic, but also in foreign policy issues. There’s only just under two hundred countries in the world. More than half of them are too small to really matter. Hell, you don’t even have to know that much about the rest - but of the ones in which your country is involved, I would hope you would have more than just basic knowledge. And you can’t get much more basic than “where the fuck stuff is”. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759/56 "2012-03-05T04:57:56Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > No one calls talking to people recreational. It’s just life. Plenty of people talk recreationally, you know, they call up their friends and hang out. I have three phone numbers on my phone, and one is obsolete because the person is in a foreign country now. So I essentially have exactly two people in the world I ever have anything to do with outside of formal situations… and one is my mom who I don’t even talk to as much anymore. > [@jjimm](#): > > Well you took steps to proclaim on a messageboard that it isn’t important to you. Perhaps not proud, then, but certainly more than an internalised shame.Because you vote. You vote in a country that is one of the most powerful in the world. It’s certainly the most internationally belligerent of late. > > Basic knowledge of what’s going on where your leaders diddle their military and financial fingers would be a (admittedly faint) hope from the rest of us out here in the world, to inform your voting based not only on domestic, but also in foreign policy issues. > > There’s only just under two hundred countries in the world. More than half of them are too small to really matter. Hell, you don’t even have to know that much about the rest - but of the ones in which your country is involved, I would hope you would have more than just basic knowledge. And you can’t get much more basic than “where the fuck stuff is”. I stopped voting when I was realized I’m a worthless, deplorable, mentally insufficient worm and that that means I don’t deserve to have a voice. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759/57 "2012-03-05T05:01:31Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > I stopped voting when I was realized I’m a worthless, deplorable, mentally insufficient worm and that that means I don’t deserve to have a voice. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759/58 "2012-03-05T05:03:15Z")
Jragon, if you’re kidding around, it’s not terribly funny. If you’re serious, I would suggest calling your mom and turning off the computer. Geography won’t help what you’ve got going on. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759/59 "2012-03-05T05:05:07Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > 😕 > [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Jragon, if you’re kidding around, it’s not terribly funny. If you’re serious, I would suggest calling your mom and turning off the computer. Geography won’t help what you’ve got going on. I’m serious, my mom has done everything she could. Four different psychologists told me I’m basically broken and they could never help me to function so I gave up with “help.” ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759/60 "2012-03-05T05:07:29Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > I’m serious, my mom has done everything she could. Four different psychologists told me I’m basically broken and would never be able to function so I gave up with “help.” OK, I think this thread is about way more than geography. Sorry for taking it at face value. I hope for you this is just a phase and even though it feels like it won’t end, that things will get better. I agree: force yourself to call your mom and be honest with her. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-is-geography-so-important-for-me-to-have-memorized/614759.md?page=4)