Before I share these outrageously silly conversations I’ve had with friends, let’s briefly examine the difference between someone who is uneducated vs. someone who is uninformed.
One is uneducated if they lack formal education or learning a particular subject. On the other hand, an uninformed person may not necessarily lack formal education but may lack awareness of relevant facts.
Lacking general knowledge does not imply stupidity. But it can significantly impact their capability of understanding things.
In this article, I’ll share these five conversations with people who are uninformed or uneducated. Then I’ll conclude with critical observations in my closing remarks.
Here is an example of a conversation I was having with a friend. We were comparing how we felt about the different seasons throughout the year.
I told a friend that I like the warm weather in the north during the summer because it’s not as hot as it is down south. On the other hand, my friend said he can’t stand the hot summer days and looks forward to the fall.
The conversation gradually shifted to scientific explanations of why we have four seasons. Then I mentioned that Mars has seasons like ours because its axis is tilted similarly to Earth’s axis.1
My friend gave me a perplexed look and asked what I meant. So, I explained how the Earth’s tilt causes our seasons.
With that, he proclaimed, “That’s crazy! If the Earth were tilted, we’d fall off.”
I couldn’t believe he said that! But I suspected he said it simply because he didn’t have the cognitive ability to understand the law of physics and the effect of gravity.
Understandably, not everyone knows about our planet’s configuration in orbit around the Sun, and that’s okay.
I can’t blame my friend for that lack of knowledge. After all, if you were to ask me how to perform brain surgery, I’d be lost. Everyone has their niche of understanding.
It all depends on our education. But it also has a lot to do with one’s interest. Do you have friends who have little interest in understanding certain concepts?
Some people are interested in things they never learned in school, so they do their research, study what they want to know, and educate themselves.
One day, when I was out with a friend, I suddenly saw the Moon. So I said to her, “Look! There’s the Moon!”
Without looking at the sky, she responded, “Oh, that’s silly! It’s the middle of the day. The Moon only comes out at night.”
I decided not to give her an explanation. Instead, I justified in my mind that some people don’t notice it during the day and think it only cycles through the night sky. Besides, there was no point in starting an argument.
In a discussion with a friend about evolution, I mentioned a few things about how Homo sapiens evolved. My friend had never heard that reference before and asked me, “What is a Homo sapien?”
I answered, “We are!”
He got noticeably disturbed and said, “I’m not a homo! What the hell gives you that idea?”
I didn’t get anywhere trying to explain the etymology of the human species.2
I told him that homo means “human being” in Latin, and sapiens means “wise or intelligent.”
But he couldn’t care less, and I realized he was unfamiliar with the origin of certain words.
I picked up a friend at the airport when she returned from a business trip in France. She was tired from the long plane trip and said she needed to get over jet lag after flying through so many time zones.
While driving her home, I thought about her previous remark, and thought it would make for interesting conversation. So, I mentioned that we have 24 time zones on Earth. She asked how I knew that, and I told her it was a simple deduction since we have 24 hours in a day.3
But then, the conversation got weirdly convoluted. I mentioned that we are not stationary but that we are moving around the Earth at roughly 1,000 miles per hour.
She couldn’t grasp that concept. She thought it sounded way too fast and that we would feel it.
For the fun of it, I tried to put her at ease by explaining that I wasn’t totally accurate. I clarified that it was only true at the equator. I didn’t want to overwhelm her by mentioning the 24 hours of sunlight at the poles during the summer.
I attempted to prove my logic mathematically. I explained that it was simple arithmetic. The Earth’s circumference is roughly 24,000 miles, and we have 24 hours in a day.
So, dividing 24,000 miles by 24 hours gives us 1,000 miles per hour in the rotational speed.
However, I didn’t realize that my explanation would fall on deaf ears since she didn’t have the mathematical background to understand a word of what I was saying.
That wasn’t her fault. It was mine, and I should never have brought it up. Maybe she was tired from the trip.
Nevertheless, she had a good night’s sleep. And that helped her feel better the next day with little lasting effect from jet lag — or our conversation.
One friend of mine was difficult to talk to about the complex issues he had in his life. He is no longer a friend, and that was his choice. You see, he couldn’t deal with my insistence on understanding him. I’ll tell you what I mean.
He had difficulty articulating his thoughts clearly. He would often tell me a story about something that was troubling him. He felt the need to talk about it, and I was a good listener. The problem is that I was genuinely interested in his deliberations.
I wanted to understand what he needed to say. But regrettably, he tended to express himself confusingly, even going off on tangents. So, I would stop him every so often to ask what he meant.
I observed that when he talked about his affairs with several friends in a group, the others would merely pass over anything that was not clear. They didn’t care to understand him.
On the other hand, I felt the need to keep him focused on the main point he was trying to make, so that I could understand him. I often tried to do that by repeating what I thought he meant. Then I would ask, “Did I understand you correctly?”
Well, none of that helped. On the contrary, it made him more frustrated. He even got angry once and told me to shut up and just let him talk.
When I said he should appreciate that I wanted to understand what he was saying, he replied, “You don’t need to understand me! Just let me talk! No one else ever bothers me with that!”
Did you ever experience trying to understand someone when they weren’t clear, and they got upset about it?
I couldn’t resist explaining that no one else seemed to bother him because they didn’t care to understand. It’s not that important to them. A true friend listens and tries to understand.
I know that it wasn’t polite of me to tell him that. Unfortunately, he never wanted to see the truth. Instead, he just wanted to live in a fantasy world, thinking that life was great with wonderful friends who let him chatter away. It’s a shame that he wasn’t interested in being understood.
Based on these encounters, I concluded that a lack of education on a particular subject could be due to a lack of curiosity. These friends of mine were competent in other areas, but they missed out on crucial worldly information.
All levels of knowledge and education have no bearing on one’s loyalty as a friend or attitude toward life. So we shouldn’t judge.
We shouldn’t overlook other traits they might have that are exceptionally important. Everyone has weaknesses in some areas and expertise in others.
Considering one’s demeanor, unique talents, and value system is more important than condemning them for missing out on some scholastic qualities or having a lack of social aptitude.
We might expect people to be a little more knowledgeable, but it’s a shame our educational system has failed so many.
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