Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Break Down Which Things They Just Genuinely Don't Understand

People Break Down Which Things They Just Genuinely Don't Understand
Image by skeeze from Pixabay

The world is a big and confusing place. While our immediate job should be to understand the problems and responsibilities in front of us, it can like we don't know anything at all when we try to understand everything. Whether it be science or technology related, there can be things we will never understand, and that's okay. So long as other people don't understand it either.


Reddit user, u/gigi_c16, wanted to hear about what confuses you when they asked:

What is something you genuinely don't understand?

It Goes On And On Forever...Or Does It?

homer simpson space GIFGiphy

How space can be infinite.

Seriously, my mind starts to itch just trying to imagine what that means.

scnr83

now try imagine it being finite, and there being a point where existence just stops

equally incomprehensible

ParkityParkPark

*sniff *sniff

How smell works.

Some Animals can smell stuff miles away.

Sharks can smell underwater.

I smell when I don't shower.

MorganOctober

Working All The Time

Companies and people that work 12 to 16 hour days every day without pause or break.

I get money, but it seems pretty pointless when you don't see your family, your home, your youth.

So sick of this sh-t and I don't even have to do it every day.

Crash4654

We're In The Most Brilliant, Stupid Time

Media player screens. How in the f-ck does a device take a bunch of data in 0s and 1s and translate that into a picture in tiny dots of color and project it all instantaneously with tiny pixels that each glow the correct color? It's such an ungodly amount of data and speed that it boggles my mind.

sadpanda___

The easiest to understand, and on of the biggest image file formats is just that : a BitMaP. For each and every pixel, the file stores the full color data about that pixel. The trendy one for a while has been a pallette of 16.7 millions of colors, so the number to store that information is quite big.

not_better

Yep. Checks Out. Aliens.

looking season 3 GIFGiphy

WiFi, radio, cell phone data, and the cloud. I mean, I get how they say it works.....but I'm pretty sure it's actually magic. You're telling me that terabytes of data are sent from earth to a satellite, back to a cell tower, and then into my phone in milliseconds.....nope, aliens did this for sure.

sadpanda___

This Still Makes...Less Sense.

Gravity

PhoenixsCurse

As someone who isn't an expert (but once read some books written by experts) no one understands gravity. The best explanation we have is by Einstein where gravity is what happens when things curve the space-time continuum causing other things to fall into the curve. That's complicated enough to start with, but a lot of the reasoning and nuances are still just "it just works". There's even a theory that gravity is caused by subatomic particles called gravitons that cause two things to move close together or something.

Yserbius

We're Adults. We Don't Need To Cheat.

A minor one :

People cheating in those online steps challenges. In my org, we had people averaging 70K(almost 32miles) steps daily over 3 months. People with desk jobs, mind you. There were no prizes to be had. I can't understand what motivates such people

King_O_Rap

All Together: It's A Big Ball Of Wibbly Wobbly...Timey Wimey...Stuff.

Time. If nothing changed at all, nothing moved, nothing grew or decayed, apparently Time would still exist as a thing. How can it be other than related to change?

Nighttraincapt

Furthermore, all of the three spacial dimensions we can move through both backwards and forwards. Why can we only move one direction through time? After all, einstein tells us that time is intimately connected with the spacial dimensions. Why then, should it be different in that regard?

TheBertinator3000

We All Have That One Aunt Or Uncle Like This, Right?

I will never be able to understand how someone can read a singular article that their high school dropout friend shared on facebook and believe they are smarter than an expert on a subject

GeneralDirgud

That belief was already present. They just need something to justify their belief. Isn't that part of the Dunning Kruger effect?

[usernameredacted]

Not really, the dunning-kruger effect isn't that dumb people think they are experts (although that is how it is often portrayed as, ironically).

It's more like beginners (e.g. a 2 out of 10 skill level) think they are slightly better than they are (like a 3-5 out of 10). And conversely experts (8/10) thinking they are slightly worse than they are (6-7/10).

MrSmile223

It's Called Being A Human

bart simpson agree GIFGiphy

While I understand what it is, as a male, I really don't get catcalling or sexually harassing a woman.

I don't get what goal some men have in their minds when they make those comments (or actions) towards women.

Do I find some women I don't know attractive? For sure.

JacobasNile

Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Screenshot of Seth Moulton; Donald Trump
MS Now; Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images

Dem Rep. Offers Brutally Accurate Reason For Why He Can't Understand 'The Mind Of Donald Trump'

Massachusetts Democratic Representative Seth Moulton made a fitting observation about President Donald Trump's mind after Trump gave a 20-minute address to the nation about his war in Iran on Wednesday evening.

Trump claimed “core strategic objectives are nearing completion” in the Iran war and vowed to strike Iran "extremely hard" over the next two to three weeks. He said that he would finish the job "very fast," without setting any timeline for ending the war. He pledged to "bring them [Iranians] back to the Stone Ages, where they belong.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Solicitor General Sparks Alarm After Telling Supreme Court He's 'Not Sure' If Native Americans Are Birthright Citizens

Solicitor General Sparks Alarm After Telling Supreme Court He's 'Not Sure' If Native Americans Are Birthright Citizens

The relationship between Indigenous American nations and the colonizers and later settlers who arrived and established the United States is complicated.

Indigenous peoples were integral parts of the survival and success of early colonizers. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy's Great Law of Peace offered a blueprint for the United States Constitution and the structure of the federal government including the three independent branches offering checks and balances, ideally.

Keep ReadingShow less
Iraqi soccer fans hold a banner at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport as a man in an orange jacket confronts them and tears it down.
@hussein_pepe96/Instagram

Racist Guy Caught On Video Tearing Through Iraqi Soccer Fans' Banner At Dallas Airport: 'Don't Come To America'

With the United States set to host the 2026 World Cup, a video out of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport is drawing attention for a very different reason: showing a man ripping apart an Iraqi soccer fan’s banner and telling them, “Don’t come to America.”

The video, posted on Instagram, shows a group of Iraqi sports fans standing in an airport holding a banner with Arabic and Spanish writing. The fans were there to support Iraq during their World Cup qualifier against Bolivia, which resulted in a 2-1 upset victory earlier that day.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @themouselets' TikTok video
@themouselets/TikTok

TikToker Edits Dad's Disney Vacation Into Horror Movie After It Keeps Getting Interrupted By 'Work Emergency'

Sometimes you can only realize how bad a situation has gotten when you see it in a photo or video.

TikToker @themouselets works in civil engineering and is a part-time Disney content creator, making frequent trips to the park, but it's still a rare occurrence for her to be able to go with her entire family.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @tts_tiktok22's TikTok video
@tts_tiktok22/TikTok

Videos Of Squirrels Trying To 'Vape' Are Going Viral—And We Don't Know Whether To Laugh Or Cry

Some viral videos come along that leave us unsure whether we should laugh or cry. In the case of squirrels trying to vape, crying is unfortunately the more likely outcome.

E-cigarettes have dramatically increased in popularity in recent years and are often even portrayed as a cool accessory on social media. Unfortunately, disposable, one-time-use e-cigarettes have been made affordable and easily accessible, and instead of properly disposing of them, people often leave them on the ground like cigarette butts.

Keep ReadingShow less