islands of ignorance

We all have 'em, and personally, I find them fascinating. What someone doesn't know can be even more intriguing than what they do know.

There are four kinds of islands of ignorance, I think. Not counting the general ignorance of people who are morons. That's not intriguing at all. People who can't find their country of residence on a map or who believe their spam e-mail aren't actually fun per se.

Okay, so there's all the stuff you learned in school, then promptly forgot totally. (In my case, Latin and all higher math from Algebra 2 on up.) Then there's stuff that isn't generally taught in school, but that most people pick up somehow along the way. (In my case, anything to do with finance more complex than balancing a checkbook.) There's also willful ignorance, stuff you just refuse to learn. (In my case, that'd be...nevermind, we won't go there.) And then there's the stuff that they should have taught you in school, if only you'd gone to a better school district. (In my case, all US History from about 1870 through World War I. Every freaking year we started over with Columbus, and every freaking year, we made it halfway through the book. Srsly.)

I think category #2 is the most fun. A male friend of mine confessed recently that despite being college educated and quite well-read, he's not actually sure which foods contain carbs. A female friend not only did not know what "ska" is when it came up in conversation, she'd never even heard the word. I'd like to give an example of something remarkably simple that I should know but don't, but the sad part is, I probably don't know I don't know it.

I'm fairly sure it has to do with computers, automobiles, or the Bush Administration, however.