Not recently, but when I was in High School, we were taught that Shakespeare’s plays weren’t written down until later. They were cobbled together from people who could remember the lines and wrote them down later.
When I went to college I learned a) not even remotely true and b) High School is basically bullshit to keep you busy until you go to college.
I hear people say the phrase “it’s high school biology” a lot. Yeah, high school biology is simplified to the point of being just plain wrong.
Probably a jumbled up recollection of the pirated plays people would scribble down to sell to printers or to competing theatre companies.
The First Folio and other “good” sources were probably not directly from Shakespeare’s drafts either, but from revised working scripts that the King’s Men had around. Still a vast jump from there to “weren’t written down until later.”
In general, there’s a lot of needless mystery and “bardolatry” surrounding Shakespeare, when in fact he was reasonably well documented for a commoner, has had every single scrap of evidence for his life and career scoured over a dozen times, had works of uneven quality, and most of what’s unique about him jibes perfectly well with a half-educated prodigy coming in from the country and working in a milieu that was kind of edgy and open to experimentation.
Maybe the thought was that even Shakespeare took themes and plots from earlier work and even from stories that come from oral traditions?
I used to believe that common sense existed. You know, the usual stuff, like water is hot and fire is wet…
But then it occurred to me a few years ago, that what people believe to be ‘common sense’ are actually the things that nobody bothers to teach the next generation.
Meaning that common sense is only as common as one’s elders teach you. So when the elders assume that you automatically know certain things, they won’t bother teaching you.
Hence, common sense does not exist.
Would you say that common sense changes with the generations? What was once common is no longer, and what was uncommon becomes common?
Once upon a time, it was considered common sense to tie your shoes. Then Velcro came along…
Wait, you weren’t born knowing how to tie your shoes?
I guess about everyone (kids/teens) know how to tie their shoes, but something I saw in the last 10 years or so, kids, especially in big towns, does not how to ride a bike. I’ve seen teens who never rode a bike and don’t know how.
Damn, really?
I almost wanted to comment about how cursive writing is getting lost these days instead, but damn, bicycles?!
Tom Scott only learned to ride a bicycle two years ago: https://youtu.be/P7GKK3liv8M
And clocks.
LOL, I actually learned how to read analog clocks at age 9, by myself, just by watching the hands tick for like 5 minutes.
Still though, even that isn’t common sense, I had to refer to prior education to know to associate the position of the hands with the hours, minutes and seconds numbers I had previously been taught.
Oh, yeah… I forgot about the common sense part. I was just thinking about changing skills.
Besides all of what you said being wrong…
You think “a few years ago” is recent?
“Common sense” literally just means stuff most people are likely to know.
It used to be common sense to not sneak up behind a horse in the dark. But most people today have no idea why that could literally cost you your life, unless if they watched GoT or something and remember what happened to Hodor.
If horses were still everywhere, it would still be common sense. Because common sense stuff didn’t need to be taught. An average person would have learned that by a certain age regardless of if anyone ever tried to teach them.
Either they’d have been kicked by a horse, or they’d have seen/heard of a person being kicked.
Most of the time when I see people make the complaint you just did, it’s because they’re older and don’t understand information that was important for them, is no longer important for the next generation.
Cute argument. Love it!
I was actually kicked twice by horses when I was a child. Maybe you should pass that information along to the newer generations…
You know, actually teach what you believe should be common sense…
You know, actually teach what you believe should be common sense
…
You completely and utterly missed every point I was making if you still think that’s common sense.
Here’s an example of common sense in 2024, that’s actually relevant to “newer generations” tho:
When someone is that incapable of understanding something, blocking them is better than wasting time repeating yourself.
Again, that’s not common sense. There is no such thing as common sense.
You had to be educated to learn to use digital technology in the first place.
But maybe, just maybe you can listen to your own supposed ‘common sense’, and just drop your argument and go touch some grass or something.
Why do people who are also on the internet always feel like trying to say the other person doesn’t go outside is a valid argument it’s just as likely you’re a basement dwelling virgin who hasn’t seen the sun in months as it is he is.
I’m between pit stops right now, elbow deep in grease and about to have to change a starter on a Hyundai.
And I’ve had more than my share of relationships. Thank you for the insult though.
And yet you still find all this time to argue on the internet? Hopefully one day I can be half as successful as you!
But by creating isolated communities, the common sense will be isolated alongside into clusters of uncommon common senses which will make them not common at all.
Mosquito hawks don’t eat mosquitos or larvae or do anything against mosquitos.
It always seemed odd since they fly like they’re drunk but I figured mosquitos aren’t much stronger fliers so maybe they’re just ‘good enough’ to catch mosquitos. Nope- it’s just a dumb name for a crane fly. I always gave them room even when they bothered me because I figured they’re doing good work eating the enemy, but now I know they’re not allies I swat them like any other pest.
I used to believe narwhals were a fake internet cryptid, but no, real ass aquatic mammal.
I always thought peanuts were nuts and grew on trees. Oh how utterly, devastatingly naive I’ve been…
It’s devastating that a PBJ and is a bean sandwich.
Peanuts are not beans. They are legumes.
Botanically yes, peanuts are legumes and not technically beans. Calling it a legume makes me think about silage and feed. So, they are beans to me.
Feed is food though right? I mean as long as you’re not allergic of course.
Damn that would suck, being allergic to peanuts…
I’ve worked harvesting alfalfa and soybeans. Both are legumes but one is considered grain for silage(feed) and the other is processed into oil.
My wife hates being allergic to them, and only managed to kick her love of them after a particularly bad reaction. It sucks cuz I love Reese’s and have to be very careful about eating them around her. I’m just glad she’s not so allergic that we can’t even have it in the house…
Yeah, I mean can you imagine what squirrels would do to peanut trees? They’d mess them up. Squirrels are basically tiny chimpanzees.
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Oh there’s a lot.
- When I was a kid, parents and teachers used to teach, if you have sore muscles a day after an extensive workout, you need to work out even more in order to reduce the soreness. In fact, however, you need to rest those muscles.
- I thought, pepperoni was pepper. (Like bell pepper, just smaller; similar to chilli). Then my girlfriend enlightened me after a confusing conversation, that pepperoni was a kind of salami. And then recently, at a company event before ordering pizza and after a very confusing discussion of what toppings we order, it turned out pepperoni was actually a kind of a salami, but not everyone agreed. So by now I’ve learned that pepperoni is neither of them. It doesn’t exist. It’s listed on pizza menus, and when you order it, you’ll get something for sure, but you won’t know in advance what it would be.
- This isn’t new, the realization was several years ago, but fits this list nicely: I thought, perfume was something for women. It turned out, there was perfume for men too.
- Parents used to teach, if you read in the dark (on paper, not on a screen, I must add), you’re ruining your eyes. But if you think about it: wtf does low light do to your eyes? By that logic, you’re constantly ruining your eyes while sleeping.
- For some reason I used to think, you could simply delete related entities bound by foreign key constraints in postgres, if you ran the query in a transaction. Once when I finally needed to do this, I learned the hard way I was wrong.
There’s a lot more than this, probably I’ll update this comment in the future. Or not.
I love how this comment covers super common misconceptions, but then throws a super specific database issue in at the end. Gotta have that cascade on delete, unless you want orphans.
Pepperoni (double p) is a type of salami in my view, but TIL that peperoni (single p) are a type of sweet pepper. I knew that peperoncini are a type of hot pepper.
how about actual italians don’t know what the fuck pepperoni is. they have pizza salami, but that weird red sausage is not something you’ll find in Italy
That vapes cause popcorn lung. Only specific vape juice that isn’t sold anymore or hard cbd oil in a vape caused popcorn lung.
That isn’t to say vaping is good for you. It just doesn’t cause popcorn lung
I used to believe business could claim tax breaks for the money we contribute when they ask “Do you want to donate to XYZ cause?”
I learned today about how businesses can’t actually claim point-of-sale charitable donations that show on a receipt for a tax write-off. Also, I learned about how no one can claim tax write-off for cash donations into a charity jar.
NaN == NaNIt’s pronounced offen with a silent T. You may think you sound smarter with a hard T, but you’re ignoring the root etymology of the word.
The word has always had a t sound since Old English, and it’s part of the reconstructed language Proto-Germanic in the form *ufta. Every other Germanic language displays a t in the corresponding word:
Scots oftin (“often”), North Frisian oftem (“often”), Saterland Frisian oafte (“often”), German oft (“often”), Pennsylvania German oft (“often”), Danish ofte (“often”), Norwegian Bokmål ofte (“often”), Norwegian Nynorsk ofte (“often”), Swedish ofta (“often”), and Icelandic oft (“often”).
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That’s how I feel about helicopter!
You and J live in a bubble in a hyperloop tunnel. You have not invented “oft” as part of any language yet. Or do You and K live in the anthro and say oof… and laugh every time someone trips on a coconut often enough it becomes mean? Either is possible, yet oft misunderstood.
Not every Corner Bakery is, in fact, located at a corner
That I was the only idiot around. My, how wrong I was!
