GlueGuy - <font color=blue>It's just that no one can know what they don't know; it's just that some people can't quite figure that out, and I think that's what you're describing here... </font color=blue>
The phrase "don't know what they don't know" was a pet expression of mine when I was in the corporate world. Usually, it was part of a longer statement, such as "I don't have a problem with someone not knowing something - what bothers me is when they don't know what they don't know." That perhaps makes it a little clearer that I was describing exactly what you said.
It's fine to not know something. There's lots of things I don't know and would like to, and that's one of the main reasons I'm here on TBN. But, when a person doesn't have the ability to realize, or won't admit, that he doesn't know something, all kinds of really stupid stuff happens. That's the main reason I jump in, sometimes a little too vigorously perhaps, whenever somebody says, in effect, "I've never used a thingamajigger, and only seen one once, but I sure don't think you need one or should have one." I want to say "Why, exactly? Because you don't have one, you don't want anyone else to? Is that it?" I want to say "Of course you don't know what they're good for - we knew that already - that's why you don't have one. You've got the whole thing completely backwards. There's no evidence that you don't have one because they're useless - the evidence points to the possibility that you don't have one because you don't know how useful they are. Don't you realize how stupid what you just said is? You just said you have no idea what you're talking about (you're doing fine so far...) but you've got an opinion that's just as good as everybody else's (logic train just got derailed...) and you think everybody else should act upon your completely baseless conclusions? (I'm not even going there...)" Not that I get worked up over it or anything... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
On the other hand, the TBN archives are full of excellent discussions that started with a question like "I don't have a thingamajigger but I've seen one once, and I'm wondering what they're good for. Can someone tell me?" At that point, I love to see those that have one, have used one, have seen one used a lot, or whatever, to jump in there and explain all about it to the rest of us. And I'd like to see those who don't know have the ability to know they don't know and learn along with the rest of us that don't know. Or something like that. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif
