talking^2

Some medical students had no idea who Henry Kissinger was. Nor had they heard of Lou Gossett Jr. Another didn't recognize the abbreviation WS in an IMing context about baseball. An engineer wasn't familiar with the concept of "sampling" in reference to music, even when they proclaimed to be a hip hop and RnB fan.

Maybe it's the way I use language, assuming that everyone else is on a similar wavelength - able to understand analogies, or at least able to pretend. I'm afraid of blank stares. They make me self conscious. Did I say something stupid? Do I have a boogie? Am I that weird?

Am I focusing on the trivial? recognize bits of superficial information because that's the way my brain works. I remember a lot of things that I should not and very little of the things that I should. This doesn't make me a better person, or even more "well-rounded." It just gives me shit to bs about. Furthermore, not knowing these things shouldn't detract from someone's character or their personal enjoyment of the world. My doctor needs to know about thoracic surgery, not how to sustain rural development in the Sahara. My accountant doesn't need to know which Mariah song sampled the Talking Heads.

I didn't mean to single out specific peoples or professions. Is there a point to knowing useless facts? Few of us will aspire to compete on Jeopardy, but doesn't it feel good to be "in" on the knowledge, or at least part of the conversation? Beyond Trivial Pursuit skills, maybe these factoids are solely fodder for the talking heads. Social memes as currency for pleasant exchanges of nothingness among acquaintances. Shooting the proverbial shit.