There's an interesting contrast in OFMD between how Stede and Ed regard other people's experiences/knowledge. Especially in the first half of season 1, Stede tends to assume a wide base of "common knowledge" that's actually fairly exclusive to upper-crust people like him, and it's a constant surprise for him when he realizes other pirates don't know about these things.
“I’m the only member of the crew who can read.”
“What the hell is a vacation?”
“Have you ever considered retirement?” “What the fuck is that?”
Lucius being the only literate crew member is the hardest for Stede to get his head around, and he sputters, "...That's not--is that true?" However, while these moments consistently catch Stede off guard, he doesn't judge the crew or anyone else for not knowing these things. Instead, he usually reacts with a surprised little "oh!", then explains what he means.
On the other hand, in 1x04, we see more than one example of how Ed doesn't taken anyone's knowledge or skills as a given.
“Can you count, boy? [...] Backwards?”
“Those of you who can swim would be wise to do it now.”
"Have you ever heard of retirement?"
Unlike Stede, Ed knows that not everyone can read, or count, or swim, and the way he interacts with the crew shows his acknowledgement of that. It's a small but consistent difference between him and Stede in these early episode, and it's interesting to me.
That said, having Ed around helps Stede get a lot more comfortable with this disconnect of knowledge and experiences. By the time they're looking at the fancy table setting in 1x05 and Ed asks, “What’s escargot?”, there's no little "oh!", no moment of surprise. Stede just immediately supplies the answer--“That’s snail"--and then continues on with the lesson.
The shift isn't all-or-nothing, and Stede still has moments where he falls back into his earlier unawareness. In the very same episode, he exclaims, "Oh god, no! Why would you...?" when Ed admits to getting his silverware mixed up at the party--a sharp contrast to Frenchie's much more affirming, "Oh, they are such dicks about spoons!" But on the whole, we see these kinds of reactions from Stede less and less.
Maybe it's because Stede clearly respects and admires Ed so much. Maybe it's because of their arrangement where they're both teaching each other about different aspects of a life that's unfamiliar to them. Maybe it's because, while the crew isn't really that close with Stede at the start of the show, he spends so much time one-on-one with Ed and gets to know him/his experiences a lot better. Whatever the reason, as Stede grows closer to Ed and gets somewhat better incorporated with the crew, there's far less of an emphasis on Stede being surprised by things that people don't know.
