# Things that you can't fathom people not understanding **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 7, 2013, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360 "2013-06-07T05:50:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![Troppus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@Troppus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troppus)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360/301 "2013-06-22T10:56:23Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > Evolution. It’s such a simple model when you get down to it. Yet I know so many people, who are otherwise bright, but never manage to get a good intuitive idea of it, and have all kinds of misconceptions. > > ETA: I should give at least one concrete example. e.g. That altruism is fundamentally incompatible with evolution. Or the idea that there must be a part of the subconscious that knows that our purpose is to reproduce, and so drives us to ask out the girl at the coffee shop, or whatever. The survival of social species is dependent on cooperation within a group and altruism is compatible with evolution. An awful lot of food and water is shared when creatures cooperate to watch for predators. Even across species. The drive to have sex is behind what behooves us to ask out the girl at the coffee shop. Humans, of all creatures, should be aware that having sex might result in reproduction, but who ever made the claim that anyone who isn’t actively trying to start a family is consciously intending to advance his or her genes? Most humans are conscious that the desire to form a pair bond and have sex helps advance the species even when we’d rather not take on the burden of raising children. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360/302 "2013-06-22T13:28:16Z")
> [@misterW](#): > > Long Beach is a city environment. The counter arguments were more relevant to non city environments, although I’m sure there would be cases where they might apply in cities as well. Prime example of a person presented with facts, yet in denial. I can’t fathom this. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360/303 "2013-06-22T14:02:25Z")
> [@Troppus](#): > > The survival of social species is dependent on cooperation within a group and altruism is compatible with evolution. An awful lot of food and water is shared when creatures cooperate to watch for predators. Even across species. > > The drive to have sex is behind what behooves us to ask out the girl at the coffee shop. Humans, of all creatures, should be aware that having sex might result in reproduction, but who ever made the claim that anyone who isn’t actively trying to start a family is consciously intending to advance his or her genes? Most humans are conscious that the desire to form a pair bond and have sex helps advance the species even when we’d rather not take on the burden of raising children. I’m aware of these things. I was listing common misconceptions. If you’re asking “Who ever made the claim…?”, lots of people do IME, that’s why I posted it in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![misterW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@misterW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misterW)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360/304 "2013-06-22T14:28:25Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > Prime example of a person presented with facts, yet in denial. I can’t fathom this. The “facts” were a study conducted in a city environment. The counterarguments in this thread were primarily dealing with a non city environment. Conditions biking in a city with bike lanes and slow moving traffic are very different from conditions in a non city environment without bike lanes and with non constant, but very fast moving traffic. Different conditions call for different strategies. What is so hard to fathom about that? ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360/305 "2013-06-22T14:50:43Z")
> [@Troppus](#): > > who ever made the claim that anyone who isn’t actively trying to start a family is consciously intending to advance his or her genes? I can recall one person in particular who makes a very similar claim: **ITR Champion** believes that evolutionary psychology entails that when we have sex, our _intention_ is to reproduce. (Since this is not in fact always our intention, he concludes that evolutionary psychology is false.) ---
**Author:** ![Troppus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@Troppus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troppus)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360/306 "2013-06-22T15:31:03Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > I can recall one person in particular who makes a very similar claim: **ITR Champion** believes that evolutionary psychology entails that when we have sex, our _intention_ is to reproduce. (Since this is not in fact always our intention, he concludes that evolutionary psychology is false.) Well, I’ll give him this: society would be healthier if we each assumed reproduction will happen each time we have sex. But we’re not that bright. Mostly we just want to rub uglies. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360/307 "2013-06-22T18:32:47Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > I kind of feel bad for people that have to teach body movement. I imagine some of them must wonder why people have such a hard time. But whatever part of the brain can see someone else do several movements, and then reverse it so its facing my direction, remember it and repeat it, just hasn’t been developed yet for me. Above a certain level of complexity, and I either need a cheat sheet, a verbal walk through, or to drill it like twenty times in a row. Oh, god. I totally cannot do, say, an aerobics class because I forget what we’re supposed to be doing. I can learn it, of course, but not that fast. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360/308 "2013-06-24T13:00:49Z")
Working in a call centre the two that daily grind my gears: Not understanding the concept of phonetics. I get you might not want to learn the phonetic alphabet, (although I generally think you need to be pretty obtuse not to have learned most/all of them through sheer osmosis.) I’m talking aboult literally not understanding a question like “is that F for Foxtrot?”, (or Freddie if that doesn’t work). I don’t understand your stupid accent, I’m trying to clarify the lestters and they just will not get “here is a simple word that I think starts with the same letter you just gave me, is that correct?” Phone numbers: Mobile numbers should be pronounced 07xxx-yyy-zzz, London numbers 020-yyyy-zzzz\*, other 02 numbers follow the same pattern\*\*. Big cities 01x1-yyy-zzzz or 011x-yyy-zzzz, other 01 numbers 01xxx-yyy-zzz. Now, I wouldn’t expect everybody in the country to know the correct rhythm for everybody else’s number. (Well, I would, but that’s not what I’m talking about here.) But if it’s **your** number how can you not know the proper rhythm, especially if, as I can tell from your accent, that is your home city you’ve probably been living at your entire life? Mobiles are so commonly read out on the TV there is no excuse to have not figured out the 5-3-3 pattern. “O” is a letter not a number, especially with a thick northern/Scottish accent where “Orr” sounds like “Four”. \*020x-yyy-zzzz is understandable but wrong \*\*02xxx-yyy-zzz is also understandable ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360/309 "2013-06-24T14:11:06Z")
> [@Mr\_Shine](#): > > Phone numbers: Mobile numbers should be pronounced 07xxx-yyy-zzz. Is this really common knowledge outside of people who work in telephony? [Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_numbers_in_the_United_Kingdom#Mobile_telephones) says the format is actually 07xxx xxxxxx (leaving it open what rhythm to speak the second part), and I didn’t even know _that_. And I don’t consider myself an ignoramous on such things…I know the phonetic alphabet for example. And IME mobile phone numbers are often written or spoken the way that they are easiest to remember. For example a local plumber might advertize her number as: 0777 363 6666 ---
**Author:** ![Pabitel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@Pabitel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pabitel)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360/310 "2013-06-24T15:32:10Z")
> [@Hippy\_Hollow](#): > > Okay, I’ve got one. > > what is Up with random Capitalization in sentences. I Mean, usually I will Be online (not Here of Course) and I will encounter Posts by people who seemingly Randomly capitalize Words. And it’s Not Consistent. Sometimes it’s verbs, Nouns, adjectives, Articles. it has the Effect of making you Look batshit Insane. The rules for capitalization are fairly Standard in English, and Even if you don’t know them you’d Look far more intelligent going for the all lowercase e.e. cummings style. > > Hitting shift randomly through your typing has got to put a cramp in your typing speed. Why do people do this? These aren’t illiterate people - and capitalization is something we teach in first and second grade (trust me, I’m a former teacher). Not sure if this accounts for all of it but I do this sometimes when I have stopped typing for some reason and then resumed. Usually when I start typing it means the beginning of a sentence and so when I start typing I automatically shift the first character. I often don’t even know I am doing it but my muscle memory knows that the first letter when I start typing should be a capital. So if I stop typing in the middle of a sentence, when I have to take a phone call or something, the first letter I type when I resume , more often than not, ends up capitalized. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360/311 "2013-06-26T01:32:50Z")
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to explain this energy discount plan to some neighbors: > **[Summer Discount Plan](https://www.sce.com/residential/rebates-savings/summer-discount-plan)** > > We make it easy to save on your electricity bills with the Summer Discount Plan. Enroll to receive credit on your bill for helping us conserve energy. They still think it means all their power is going to be shut off. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360/312 "2013-06-28T17:17:37Z")
I can’t fathom why so many parents regularly hand their stroller-bound kids a giant bag of cheese puffs or snack chips and a Capri-Sun or other sugary drink, then complain that the kids won’t eat a regular meal at home. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360/313 "2013-06-29T22:10:15Z")
A mates wife who has a Masters degree, believes that rivers must run downwards on a map (N to S), she also believes in the practical joke that became urban legend about people eating monkey brains from a live monkey with its skull projecting above a table top from the centre. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360/314 "2013-06-30T01:07:35Z")
The company I was working for gave shares to their workers, as a sort of bonus/incentive thing. Everyone was entitled to receive the shares unless they opted out. There was no cost to the employee. They issued the shares when the market was in a slump and the shares were worth about $12-14 each, down about $6 on their value of a few months earlier. The only condition on them was that if you ceased employment with the company within three years, the shares would be sold. If their value was below the issue value, you would owe nothing. If it was above the issue value, you would receive the profit on them. After the three years they were yours outright to keep or sell when you changed employment. Several of my co workers opted out, and one of the managers tried to talk me into opting out, saying I’d be a fool to get shares at a time like this when the market was doing so poorly. I ignored him. The shares are valued around $38 each now, five years on. I did leave the employer before the 3 years were up and got an extra thousand dollars bonus thanks to the shares, and I still own the shares they let us buy at a discounted price a few months after the first offer. I guess what I can’t fathom people not understanding is: - free shares are free money - buying shares when the market is down is smart, especially when the company is one of the biggest retailers in the country, very profitable and likely to regain their share value when the market rebounds. My dad says the same thing happened where he works. Some vocal co-workers were adamant that the company was getting one over them by giving them free shares. ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360/315 "2013-06-30T02:17:01Z")
> [@Eliahna](#): > > The company I was working for gave shares to their workers, as a sort of bonus/incentive thing. Everyone was entitled to receive the shares unless they opted out. There was no cost to the employee. They issued the shares when the market was in a slump and the shares were worth about $12-14 each, down about $6 on their value of a few months earlier. The only condition on them was that if you ceased employment with the company within three years, the shares would be sold. If their value was below the issue value, you would owe nothing. If it was above the issue value, you would receive the profit on them. After the three years they were yours outright to keep or sell when you changed employment. > > Several of my co workers opted out, and one of the managers tried to talk me into opting out, saying I’d be a fool to get shares at a time like this when the market was doing so poorly. I ignored him. The shares are valued around $38 each now, five years on. I did leave the employer before the 3 years were up and got an extra thousand dollars bonus thanks to the shares, and I still own the shares they let us buy at a discounted price a few months after the first offer. > > I guess what I can’t fathom people not understanding is: > > - free shares are free money > - buying shares when the market is down is smart, especially when the company is one of the biggest retailers in the country, very profitable and likely to regain their share value when the market rebounds. > > My dad says the same thing happened where he works. Some vocal co-workers were adamant that the company was getting one over them by giving them free shares. I guess they thought there was some kind of catch nobody was telling them about. I mean, if you didn’t just take the deal for what it was (simply sounds like one of the benefits of the company) you’d assume it was ‘too good to be true’ and wary of putting yourself in a bad situation. But I don’t see any downside- its not like you’re getting stocks in lieu of something else here. I don’t know why anyone would want to opt out either 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360/316 "2013-06-30T04:20:28Z")
> [@Incubus](#): > > But I don’t see any downside- its not like you’re getting stocks in lieu of something else here. I don’t know why anyone would want to opt out either 😕 WAG: Because they’ve heard that people have lost money with stocks and they don’t want to lose money either. They have no idea what stock even is, but they’ve heard lots of bad things about it and don’t want to be associated with that bad thing that’s always on the news for losing money. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360/317 "2013-06-30T13:04:04Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > A mates wife who has a Masters degree, believes that rivers must run downwards on a map (N to S), she also believes in the practical joke that became urban legend about people eating monkey brains from a live monkey with its skull projecting above a table top from the centre. Many, basically educated and intelligent, people have (often cherished) odd blind spots / areas of ignorance – especially about things outside their area of expertise. Geographical / wayfinding stuff does seem to be “problem territory” for many people. I once had a – perfectly intelligent and for the most part well-informed – work colleague; who told the rest of us, with apparent total conviction, that the compass point “north”, was in whatever direction you happened to be facing: all the points of the compass swivelled round to match, whenever you turned to face in a diffferent direction. Half a dozen colleagues all telling her that this was rubbish, and why, did nothing at all to sway her from this belief. (To be honest, I have a slight suspicion that she might have been “winding us up”.) I’ll admit that always until now, I’d thought that the eating-brains-from-a-live-monkey business, was “the real deal”. I’d understood it to be a Chinese thing (hopefully, from bygone times rather than still today); without meaning any disrespect to that highly cultured and sophisticated people – it’s a practice which, from that part of the world, I’d have little difficulty believing to be true. I tried to look it up on Snopes, but found nothing. Any confirmation that it is a myth, would be appreciated: I’d certainly like to hope that it’s a myth. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360/318 "2013-06-30T16:00:44Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > A mates wife who has a Masters degree, believes that rivers must run downwards on a map (N to S), she also believes in the practical joke that became urban legend about people eating monkey brains from a live monkey with its skull projecting above a table top from the centre. I know that’s not true, but every time I plan a bike ride on a map I unconsciously feel that heading north is going “uphill” ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360/319 "2013-06-30T17:32:11Z")
> [@vontsira](#): > > Many, basically educated and intelligent, people have (often cherished) odd blind spots / areas of ignorance – especially about things outside their area of expertise. Geographical / wayfinding stuff does seem to be “problem territory” for many people. I once had a – perfectly intelligent and for the most part well-informed – work colleague; who told the rest of us, with apparent total conviction, that the compass point “north”, was in whatever direction you happened to be facing: all the points of the compass swivelled round to match, whenever you turned to face in a diffferent direction. Half a dozen colleagues all telling her that this was rubbish, and why, did nothing at all to sway her from this belief. (To be honest, I have a slight suspicion that she inding us up".) > t that always until now, I’d thought that the eating-brains-from-a-live-monkey business, was “the real deal”. I’d understood it to be a Chinese thing (hopefully, from bygone times rather than still today); without meaning any disrespect to that highly cultured and sophisticated people – it’s a practice which, from that part of the world, I’d have little difficulty believing to be true. I tried to look it up on Snopes, but found nothing. Any confirmation that it is a myth, would be appreciated: I’d certainly like to hope that it’s a myth. A journo me told that it was a joke played by British foreign correspondents from the Broadsheets(I think that one of them was from The Guardian) in Singapore on a newbie fresh from the U.K when they were out drinking. He asked why there was a hole in the tables that they were drinking at, which as I recall was to put the sunshade canopy supports in and with typical Brit humour (this known to us Limeys as a Wind Up , pronounced as in winding a handle) , someone immediately gave him the horror story, which was quickly backed up by the other journos. Its a credit to the power of alcohol that the newbie believed them, as the sheer difficulty of restraining a monkey in that position, followed by cutting through its skull bone and then eating the brain can be imagined. It would be a real bugger if you had a large family party out to dine ! ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360/320 "2013-07-01T05:33:46Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > A journo me told that it was a joke played by British foreign correspondents from the Broadsheets(I think that one of them was from The Guardian) in Singapore on a newbie fresh from the U.K when they were out drinking. > > He asked why there was a hole in the tables that they were drinking at, which as I recall was to put the sunshade canopy supports in and with typical Brit humour (this known to us Limeys as a Wind Up , pronounced as in winding a handle) , someone immediately gave him the horror story, which was quickly backed up by the other journos. > > Its a credit to the power of alcohol that the newbie believed them, as the sheer difficulty of restraining a monkey in that position, followed by cutting through its skull bone and then eating the brain can be imagined. > > It would be a real bugger if you had a large family party out to dine ! I forget quite when I heard about this supposed horrible practice, but it was a fair few years ago. I just received the general impression that it was a Chinese-type “colourful custom”, more – thank heaven – from times past, than today. This spoof being perpetrated in Singapore – unless it happened many decades ago, to be honest I’d have trouble seeing it taking place in that location. Independent Singapore strikes me as an unpleasantly repressive place, with all kinds of things forbidden on pain of draconian punishment. On the credit side, though; I’d think that the Singapore government would take a very dim view of the eating-live-monkey-brains routine, and would rigorously enforce the prohibition. I admit to doubt, about the new chum’s failing to spot that hole in the story – through no matter how thick an alcoholic fog ! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-cant-fathom-people-not-understanding/660360.md?page=17)