It is possible to not be aware of the extent of your knowledge/ignorance. It is also possible to be fully aware of the extent of your knowledge/ignorance. So you can know very little and not be aware that you know so little, or you can know very little and be aware that you know so little, or you can know a lot and be aware that you know a lot.
But is it possible to know a lot and not be aware that you know so much? Is it possible to know literally everything about a given topic and not be aware that you've got everything?
3 comments:
is it possible to know a lot and not be aware that you know so much?
Only if you always look forward, not look backwards and your rivals;
Is it possible to know literally everything about a given topic and not be aware that you've got everything?
NO, nowadays, “a given topic” is always related to other topics, just like the blue buttons in Wikipedia.
I find it interesting that the most ignorant people are often the people who think they know so much. When I learn a little about a subject, I feel I know enough to know how much I don't know.
That doesn't answer your question. I wonder if it's ever possible to know everything about one subject. Perhaps if it's a very narrow topic.
I find it interesting that the most ignorant people are often the people who think they know so much.
When I finished high school, with top marks in two OAC French classes, I thought I was fluent in French. After all, I could give you literally every single conjugation of any verb you could throw at me! Then I went to university and met people who actually spoke French as a first language. Puns based on Quebecois slang and people hitting on me in African French and co-workers speaking with Acadian accents. And now I'd never characterize myself as fluent in French, even though I work in the language every day and could convince any non-Francophone non-translator reading this that it's my first language.
I wonder if it's ever possible to know everything about one subject. Perhaps if it's a very narrow topic.
If you narrow the topic enough, it's definitely possible. In between the 4th and 5th Harry Potter books, where there was a three-year wait for a new book and only about a thousand pages of canon, there were people in fandom who knew literally everything about canon.
Isn't there a whole British quiz show based on that premise, where the contestant picks a really obscure topic like sewing machine bobbins from 1817-1829?
Post a Comment