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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

How can you not know?!

423 replies

TittyGolightly · 19/04/2017 19:52

I work with a woman (29 and a mother of one) whose lack of general knowledge I can't quite believe to be normal. Ask anything about TOWIE or IACGMOOH and she knows it (unlike me) but the following are just some of the things she hasn't known in the past couple of weeks:

that we aren't "doing cows a favour" by milking them
that tea grows on bushes (or that it's a leaf)
that coffee comes from beans
that bees are being threatened by modern farming practices and that if there are no bees we will have no plants (inc fruit and veg)
that reindeer are real
that early humans lived in caves
that a month isn't 4 weeks

She "has no idea" how anyone can know this stuff.

Is this normal now? My 6 year old knows most of this!

OP posts:

Thread gallery

rosea19 · 19/04/2017 21:11

I thought seahorses were mythical until I saw one swimming around.

pictish · 19/04/2017 21:11

I love kippers.

Crapuccino · 19/04/2017 21:11

Well in light of this thread I am downgrading my general knowledge of the world from "okayish" to "severely lacking".

No wonder I don't do well at pub trivia quizzes.

allegretto · 19/04/2017 21:11

I live in Italy and we drive to the Uk for the summer. I was telling a friend this and she was really confused - she thought the UK was on the other side of the Atlantic next to the U.S.

Orlantina · 19/04/2017 21:13

A pony is not a baby horse. I'm not entirely sure what a pony is in terms of horsiness but I do know it's not a baby horse.

(I could Google it but I'll just leave it there)

Orlantina · 19/04/2017 21:14

I wonder what the op doesn't know that she ought to know

boolifooli · 19/04/2017 21:15

I only found out 2 years ago that badgers sometimes eat baby rabbits. I watched the Animals of Farthing Wood with my dc and I don't recall any of that nonsense going on!

glitterglitters · 19/04/2017 21:15

Lol the op's post reminded me of a girl I used to work with. She came out with a few lovely corkers

Anything or anythink? I never know which one I need to use!

What county is Wales in again? Is it Essex?

Huh! Doesn't weather sound like whether? I wonder if anybody else has every noticed that?

🤦🏻‍♀️😂

informedchoice · 19/04/2017 21:15

It's herring. I don't wanna hear anything more about it, you people are mad

ShatnersBassoon · 19/04/2017 21:17

I think a pony is just a small horse. They're the same animal, but the smaller ones get called ponies.

This will probably be a perfect demonstration of someone not knowing something that everyone else does

Dinosaursdontgrowontrees · 19/04/2017 21:18

I was speaking to someone recently about night flights. She looked puzzled and said but its always daytime above the clouds I was she is in her 30s has a degree and a very good job.

Nessie71 · 19/04/2017 21:20

Sorry i was useless at school and didnt pass any exams but kipper is a herring and kipper is just how it is cut...odd facts stick in my brain...who cares if she is crap at general knowledge i know some very bright people who lack basic common sence.

MrsTwix · 19/04/2017 21:20

I remember when I was a kid the first time I was told that the moon caused the tides, I thought it was someone making stuff up. It does sound like a wind up.

FrenchDucksSayCoinCoin · 19/04/2017 21:20

I've had many times when I've thought "how can you not know that?!", but I'm sure there have been an equal number of times that other people have thought that about me. I'm fairly useful in a pub quiz, but next to useless for the film and music rounds.
We're all a result of individual circumstances and the time in which we live, my Mum was horrified when she found out I hadn't heard of the Eagles. I will be horrified when my nieces have no idea about Abba or Queen, and so it will go on.
In Slumdog Millionaire, the whole story revolves around how one man came to know disparate facts... We're all like that in our own way.
Remember when you learned that Frankenstein is the man and not the monster? That's fun. It would be sad to know it all and never have the opportunity to have your mind blown again.

JayneAusten · 19/04/2017 21:20

Sounds like she was open to learning stuff though - the fact she was prepared to discuss this all openly?

I found your post uncomfortable to read, though. Judgmental.

Grilledaubergines · 19/04/2017 21:20

A little mean spirited OP.

It would be a dull world if we all knew the same things. doesnt matter if you're degree educated. It's not a benchmark for food general knowledge. You either know something or you don't.

Grilledaubergines · 19/04/2017 21:21

Good general knowledge FFS. Not foodz

Grilledaubergines · 19/04/2017 21:21

Argghh Jesus!

Goldfishjane · 19/04/2017 21:23

Never "So what? Why should you bother about it?"

I can't speak for the OP, but I can tell you the thick one at work gets on my nerves. I'm sorry but constantly hearing things like "is Edinburgh in Portugal?" is irritating. Then there's all the drama when someone explains it isn't. And she's meant to help with booking travel. I frank my own post because she'll put UK second class on something going to Australia.

I just hope she's not on MN because if I hear "we are doing cows a favour by milking them" I might crack up laughing and I think laughing at her stupidity would probably get me in trouble!

ilovesooty · 19/04/2017 21:23

I encountered someone today who didn't know what a general election is and someone else who didn't know Theresa May is a Tory.

One of my friends has a daughter who has an English degree and a journalism qualification. She apparently didn't know what the word perforated meant.

NotExactlyHappyToHelp · 19/04/2017 21:23

Ahh we've all got gaping holes in our knowledge but then we all compensate by being very clued up on something niche.

There's a bloke at my work who professed to have never heard a Beatles song in his life. We called bullshit and entered into a rousing acapella version of Hey Jude in the fag shelter but he just looked blank.

The best one I've ever heard was lying in bed one night with an ex talking about a bit of everything and the discussion moved to history. He said with the most innocent face 'I bet when he started WW2 everyone thought oh god Hitler not again'

Loubymoo27 · 19/04/2017 21:27

I work with someone who had never heard of Anne Frank. I also used to work with someone who genuinely asked "when we put the clock forward, how does the Sun know??"

DeadGood · 19/04/2017 21:29

Not ha!

pictish, you are very gracious

Orlantina · 19/04/2017 21:31

I do think there's a lack of recent historical and political knowledge - especially around post WW2 and that's reflected in history repeating itself. Mind you, our Prime Minister seems not to understand how our democracy works either and nor does our media

lalalemon · 19/04/2017 21:36

Brother in law and his Mrs think a month is 4 weeks as well, they kept posting DN monthly update photos every 4 weeks and we're really confused that the 12 months one came before her actual birthday 😂

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