by smoker2 (750216) Alter Relationship on Saturday March 14, @04:51AM (#27191563) Homepage Journal
So if you want to work out how much turf you need to cover a circular patch of lawn, NOT knowing a reasonable approximation of Pi is OK ? You have to go find out what Pi is, how to apply it to the problem etc. Facts are only facts because they have been scientifically proven. Millionaire is trivia not calculation. Any fact you already have shortens the time needed to perform any calculation. You know that % means fractions of a hundred. If you didn't and were asked to put 40% of something somewhere, then how much should be left over ? Facts are useful, period. Witness the idiot selling laptops on TV stating that "it has a 500 gigabit hard drive" - ignorant, and proud to be that way.
The simple fact is, the more you know, the more you can know. If you see the word paediatrics on a sign in a hospital, you have a good idea that it means something to do with children, that is if you already know about paedophiles, or paediatricians. You can extrapolate from what you know to discover what you don't (science). If you choose not to know basic things, you are choosing complete ignorance, so expect to be treated that way.
Factoid is a stupid term, used by stupid people.
I have been trying to get a good friend of mine to try out linux. He doesn't know much about computers, but does a lot of selling on ebay etc. His main and first question was "how big is it ?" WTF ? What does that mean ? How big is the install disk, or how much disk space does it take up or what ? It turns out that Vista takes a few gig of disk space, so when I said that you can get a reasonably useful linux install in less than 50 MB he was astounded. But where the hell did his original question come from ? What kind of metric is that ? It has nothing to do with the merits of an operating system AFAIK.
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That which you give to another will become your own sustenance-if you light a lamp for another-your own way will be lit
The simple fact is, the more you know, the more you can know. ??? No, science and philosophy can help someone arrive at a logical conclusion but belief in what people would call a fact or factoid (that is not a scientific fact or law) with out proof and then believing you can therefore "know more", is in my opinion foolish.
Your friend has an illogical belief or "knows" that the size of the operating system is what matters. I used the example before that many people think they "know" if you go swimming after eating you will get cramps, however there are worse beliefs than this.. such as the state or religion. A great number of people "know" there are countries. A great number of people "know" there is a god of some form. The very word faith itself should be read as "made up fiction nonsense". Belief without proof in something is allowing yourself to be controlled and is a dangerous thing to allow peoples minds to be polluted by such nonsense mis-think so they can be controlled to the aims of the controller that are usually quite evil as evident by something we know of as a war, or as I like to call it senseless mass murder.
"So I left him, saying to myself, as I went away: Well, although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is - for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows. I neither know nor think that I know. In this latter particular, then, I seem to have slightly the advantage of him." -- Apology By Plato
Sorry about the OT.