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Old 03-24-2016, 06:35 PM   #1
Undertoad
Radical Centrist
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Cottage of Prussia
Posts: 31,423
On not actually knowing stuff

I have had the rare occasion where I have become learned about a subject, or to spend time doing a job or such,

And it occurs to me that, what I thought it was before goin' in, was never what it really was...

Before studying computers, my "notion" of what a computer was, was generally wrong

Before working at a pawn shop, my "notion" of what it was to be a pawn shop worker, was generally wrong

Let's say you were never a baker, and never knew a baker; if I ask you "What's it like to be a baker?", you would still have an idea in your head about what it would be like to be a baker.

That's fucked up.

And because we're not actually experts at very much -- if we are honest -- those simple and basically wrong understandings are what we use to make decisions about everything we do.

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