People Are Sharing 35 Not Fun Facts They Wish They Didn't Know

Bored Panda reached out to Daniel T. Willingham, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and author, most recently, of Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy. He was kind enough to share some insights about why humans are so drawn to learning new facts and how we benefit from them.

According to the professor, one reason why we find facts interesting is that they are very context-specific. “For example, if I said ‘Would you like to know how guitars are made?’ you wouldn’t necessarily say ‘Yes!’ immediately. You’d more likely say ’Uh … maybe. Is it interesting?’”

“What’s odd about facts is that the content matters less to whether or not you’d like to learn about it than you’d think,” he explained. Being a psychologist, Willingham is absolutely fascinated by human memory but sometimes it happens that when he goes “to professional meetings and attend talks about human memory that I find boring.”

“And then sometimes, I watch a documentary on something—for example, making guitars—that I didn’t think I’d find interesting in the least and find myself fascinated.”

Curiosity is an innate drive we share with many other species, he told us. It prompts us to learn about our environment, which obviously helps individuals to survive: “We are not curious about everything—we are curious when we think a little exploration will lead to a lot of learning.”

Still, what we gain from learning new information depends on what we already know: “Suppose you say to me: ‘Would you like to know which, of all the bottled sauces made in Kenya, is the most popular?’ I can’t name even one … so if you tell me, that fact isn’t very informative.” 

“But suppose I knew a lot about African cuisine. Now that information would be informative, because I have some context to put it in, some existing knowledge to connect it to,” Daniel T. Willingham explained. 

However, some say that taking the time and energy to learn interesting facts is a waste of time since this information is accessible with a few Google searches and quick clicks on the links. The professor disagrees, saying that factual knowledge is a really important driver of reading comprehension and other high-level thinking skills, like problem-solving.

“Think about how much easier it is to read a passage if you’re familiar with the general topic—I don’t care how ‘skilled’ a reader you are, if (like most Americans) you’re unfamiliar with the game of cricket, you will not be able to make sense of a newspaper account of the game,” Willingham elaborated.

On the other hand, “a ten-year cricket fan in India or other cricket-mad country would have no problem.”

While many blame the internet for overloading our brains with tons of information, we are the ones putting the knowledge into context. When the time is right, we can connect the dots and come up with brilliant ideas. So if you catch yourself wondering if you're ever going to use this stuff, just remember—someday you actually might.