Look It Up
“There’s no such thing as a stupid question.”
“There’s no such thing as a dumb question.”
We have heard these statements throughout our lives. One is false. The false one denotes the lack of basic thought while the true statement indicates a lack of education in an area. Even though the words have become interchangeable in our society, there is a huge difference between being dumb and being stupid. The word dumb means an individual is unlearned; they know nothing about the topic being discussed or how to perform an action. For example, I have a tenant who gets irritated that I always seem to be able to get “more for less” - he is basically brain dead in financial matters, just as I am brain dead in technological matters (the internet is fueled by fairy dust and is delivered to the house via rainbows). Neither is a bad thing - we are just unlearned in those subject areas. Dumb also indicates a willingness to LEARN the subject matter being talked about. If there wasn’t a desire to learn, the “dumb question” wouldn’t have even entered the mind. Asking “dumb questions” shows curiosity and a wont to understand something or someone. For example, my tenant asked why I thought ten pork chops for $10 wasn’t a good deal. I showed him how he was spending damn near $4 a pound for the chops that way and I just spent $2.99 a pound for a family pack of assorted chops - Kroger doesn’t put the weight of those 10/$10 chops on the package, so you have no clue what you’re spending per pound and usually you’re getting hosed for the convenience of the chops being in one package. I had gotten several nice chops for dinners and several pork steaks to use for stir fry or other meals - I saved damn near $10 on the assorted package and was able to have proteins for several different meals, reducing my cost per meal. My tenant was dumb in the way to shop for food - he is, after all, only twenty years old - and he learned a smarter way to shop for pork chops.
Now, if he still gets the 10/$10 chops he’s just plain stupid. Stupid means you knew better, but did it anyway. A stupid question means you could have thought about it, but you chose not to. Stupid questions are just that - stupid. They indicate a laziness and mindlessness mentality. People who ask stupid questions (and we have all done it) are basically saying, “I don’t want to think about this too much; please do my thinking for me.” A stupid action is basically the same thing: you knew there was a chance for rain today, but chose to go outside without an umbrella. Complaining about how you got soaked in the downpour only validates the fact that you were stupid.
I bring this up because I am noticing that with the advent of technology - specifically search engines - being stupid has become a way of life for most people. Especially with the younger generation who have basically grown up around a plethora of research materials that any I would have given my first born child for when I was younger and in school. I live with three 20-somethings. Do you realize how many cooking questions I get from them IN A DAY? Just this morning, one asked about how long to thaw ribs so he could cook them up for Thursday night. It could have been because I was still half asleep, but I just looked at him and asked, “Were you dropped on your head as a kid?” His question was BOTH dumb (because he is very unlearned in the most basic of culinary art), and stupid (because he was up most of the night ON THE INTERNET and could have looked up the question himself). Of course he defended himself and his question - to which I completely shut down because if someone like me can figure out how to put in a toilet using the internet, someone like him was more than capable of finding the answer to how long it’ll take to thaw 4 pounds of ribs. I can feel myself becoming more and more like my mother and father…
Look it up.
