For example, i recently learned how to properly use a can opener, and i’m pushing 30. PLEASE tell me i’m not alone in having these weird knowledge gaps. what’s yours?

  • owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca
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    6 hours ago

    Usually I don’t know about my knowledge gaps until someone fills me in, so it’s hard to say.

    There are a lot of movies that I’ve never seen that apparently everyone else has seen. I usually just smile and nod when people talk to me as if I’ve seen whatever they’re referencing, it’s easier than dealing with the incredulity and making false promises about getting around to seeing it.

    Also, relevant xkcd

    • kartoffelsaft@programming.dev
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      5 hours ago

      I find it’s even worse with music than movies, especially if you include not knowing the thing in question at all. The movie guy reaction to not having watched the #8 top grossing movie the year is “dude how have you not seen it??? You’ve gotta see it!”, the music guy reaction to not hearing any of the #8 top musician/band this year is “are you a shutin or a dumbass? everyone I know listens to them!”. I’ve even seen both of these reactions from the same person lol.

      • owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca
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        3 hours ago

        Fair enough. But when people find out I’ve never seen Forest Gump or some other classic, I get the second reaction.

  • Sheridan@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    I don’t understand how drivers know if they have enough time to go through a yellow light. I don’t drive anymore but for the short time I did I dreaded yellow lights.

    • Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 hours ago

      My quick assessment for yellow lights is “can I comfortably stop before the stop bar?” If I’m going to have to hit my brakes harder than I normally would for a stop sign, I’m giving it gas. Quickly making that judgement is actually really intuitive most of the time and has worked great for me over the years.

    • TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip
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      5 hours ago

      It’s not about having enough time. If you see the yellow light, and you are still far away from it, and you can stop the car by gently braking, you should stop. However, not that many people do, because they just don’t feel like it. If people don’t feel like stopping, they don’t.

      If the intersection is very close when the light turns yellow, you would need to brake very hard. That’s when I just keep on going to prevent accidents. In that case, it’s not really about time either. You need to know how much distance it takes to stop your car. If you’re driving on bumpy ice, that distance will be greater than in good summer weather.

    • RoidingOldMan@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Usually it’s 1 second of yellow per 10 mph speed limit. So a 50 mph road would usually have a 5 second yellow. While 25 mph 3 second yellow.

    • snooggums@piefed.world
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      5 hours ago

      Practice and not caring if the light turns red while going through. If I feel like I would need to brake hard to stop in time then there is probably enough time to get through. When I’m wrong it doesn’t matter.

    • Get_Off_My_WLAN@fedia.io
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      5 hours ago

      If you drive the same roads every day, you can start to pick up on the pattern and timings. It’s when it turns yellow in those times you feel almost too close to stop comfortably but too far to feel you’ll make it that people will “squeeze the lemon” and accelerate through that yellow light, not that I recommend it.

      Also glad I don’t have to drive anymore.

    • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 hours ago

      It’s based on the speed limit of the road. Yellow means proceed if safe or stop if safe. The faster it is the longer the yellow. And usually the longer the time between it turning green on the other side should you pull a whoopsie.

  • Sheridan@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Until I was like 23 I didn’t know how to cut and peel an avocado. I would peel the skin off in chunks with my fingers like it was a giant boiled egg. It was a very laborious and frustrating process.

  • Krudler@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    How do people who are grotesquely underqualified and constitutionally incapable of performing well, end up with great jobs?

    • vrek@programming.dev
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      2 hours ago

      This isn’t everyone but it’s partially the Peter principal… Basically people get promoted till they are incompetent.

      Let’s say you run a manufacturing plant. You have a team of 10 people but 1 is far better. They are quicker and cause less mistakes so you decide to promote them to team lead.

      They are a good team lead. They share knowledge and help out in between so you promote them supervisor.

      They are a decent supervisor, monitoring the workers, good communication etc. You promote them to manager.

      They suck as a manager. Can’t keep track of inventory, quality is slipping, quantity produced per day is dropping. You can’t really demote them that’s not really a thing in most companies. You can either stick with a crappy manager or fire them. Either way you lost your best operator. To make it worse they have “manager” on their resume now so a lot more likely to get another manager position at a different company where they will also suck.

  • over_clox@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    I’m 43. How does Call Waiting work? Like how do you switch over from one call to the other?

    I’ve never had any situation where I had a second call come in while already in a call, but seriously how tf does that work?

    • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Honestly how did two wires on old phones power the phone, got it to ring, hold a two-way conversation, and also dial out? Only two wires?!?

      I took a class at college on it and the mystery was revealed but I’m still convinced it’s magic.

  • snooggums@piefed.world
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    5 hours ago

    That’s common knowledge (things most people know, like tying shoes), not common sense (said to justify bullshit not supported by evidence, like racist stereotypes). Now you learned a second thing!

    I tend to learn someone everyone else knows like once a year because it just hasn’t come up before. Finally found out what it meant by low/medium/high heat from a youtube video that showed things cooking as examples of each temp and also explained how wide the ranges are for each type which is why they are so vague in the first place.

    Just a couple years ago I learned the difference between chopped and diced despite having done it for years by just cutting it to whatever size my wife made as an example. Again, not as precise as I assumed like with the heat things.

  • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    The Louvre is in Paris, not London.

    Paris is in France, not great Britain.

    Dan Brown is American not British.

    Children’s nursery rhymes shouldn’t be the foundation of geographic knowledge of someone in their 30s.