Outside Counsel

I'm sure I've posted along these lines before, and I'm pretty sure Scheherazade was the one who got me going on the subject then, too, but it is an interesting question-- what do you think you know more about than 9 out of ten randomly selected people? "[N]ot expert status, but topics or situations where I think that if you selected 10 people at random, I'd trust myself and my own knowledge and expertise better than at least 9 of them." She goes on to list areas about which 9 out of ten people probably know more, and this is also an interesting question-- maybe a better question, since I think the default would be to dismiss such topics as "things I am not interested in". Since I take some pride in my intellectual curiosity, I should not dismiss subjects about which I am ignorant-- but I really can't bring myself to care much about the NBA. I find that I know quite a lot less about South America than I am happy about-- I was trying to remember why Brazil is not a Spanish speaking country the other day, and all I could recall was that it had something to do with some sort of compromise brokered by a Pope. Come to think of it, the political geography of the Southern Hemosphere is more of a blank to me than it should be. I could use some brushing up in the history of the 19th Century-- and of the early 20th Century too, although perhaps the nine of ten are likewise working at a disadvantage on these topics as well. Chances are that most people function more comfortably with simple arithmetic than I do-- that is probably closer to the spirit of the question. Saying that you don't know much about telivision, or popular actors, or popular music is really a form of showing off, I think-- I'll stay away from that. Don't know how to make my lawn look good, couldn't perform any sort of car maintainence beyond changing oil or a tire (bought a Volvo, don't have too). Hmm. I know that by posting this I am inviting people to fill me in on the gaps-- why is it that when other people post on this sort of thing, the people who comment relate their own knowledge gaps? One more thing everyone else know that I don't, I guess.