I never knew that!
Here’s one thing I’ve learned during the coronavirus pandemic — how much I don’t know.
Not everyone has the luxury of more free time from social isolation, but it has brought to light some things I never knew, was flat-out wrong about or had misunderstood.
Such revelations can be embarrassing, but I’ve always said I’m good for at least two faux pas each day.
Here you go:
1. There’s a lot of talk about the “gig economy” and how the world of work is much different now, with breakneck advances in technology. As such, I had assumed that the term “gig” was a “techie” term. You know, gigabytes, 4G, 5G, that kind of stuff.
I had no clue, until I read it somewhere recently, that “gig” in this case is akin to a musical “gig,” or a job for hire for a short time. I didn’t realize it referred to people like me — freelancers and independent contractors like drivers for hire, dog walkers, et al.
I also have no clue what a gigabyte is, so there’s a double whammy right there.
2. A couple of weeks ago, on Pi Day (March 14), I happened upon a fascinating New York Times story about the origins of pi, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter (3.14 . . .)
This sentence smacked me in the head: “Mathematically, pi is less a child of geometry than an early ancestor of calculus, the branch of mathematics, devised in the 17th century, that deals with anything that curves, moves or changes continuously.”
Whoa.
Math, for me, went no further than figuring out batting averages of baseball players. I spent most of elementary and high school nodding off or staring out the window, wishing I were out there playing Wiffle Ball. (Wiffle, by the way, does not have an ‘h’ — but I knew that.)
Calculus? Please. I barely got through algebra and geometry, and I only passed trigonometry in 11th grade because some kids in New York City stole all the Regents exam that year (1974) and we got out of taking any state exams. Thanks, guys!
Will these new “eureka” moments change my life? (Speaking of Archimedes, he would have made an excellent app developer. Do you know how an app works? Neither do I.)
Anyway, these discoveries have inspired me to think more critically about many things, even the most mundane, and to question whether I’ve been “misinformed” my entire life. Or, thanks to Wiffle Ball, things I never bothered to learn.
Another quick, recent example: Remember the recent dustup when Secretary of State Mike Pompous got nasty with NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly and challenged her to find Ukraine on a map?
Mary Louise aced it on the spot.
That night, in the privacy of my home office, I went online to find Ukraine. I was close.
Given more time, I could come up with many other things I don’t know. I’ll get to work.
I would never want to be like that American president who was described thusly by columnist George Will:
