I’ve been a long-time fan of McKinley Valentine’s newsletter the Whippet, both because of the always insightful unsolicited advice section and because of the constantly surprising combination of facts, articles, and perspectives. I loved this take on how to broaden your general knowledge from this edition.
1. Every time you look up a fact, read the whole Wikipedia page.
So for example I saw that cute flamingo photo and thought, “hang on I don’t actually know why flamingos stand on one leg” and I googled it and the answer was “because it doesn’t use any muscles”. But I read the whole page and found about the toxic lakes thing, which I had no idea about 5 minutes ago and would never have thought to google. I didn’t know it was a thing to know. “Why do flamingos stand on one leg?” is a question that naturally occurs to you if you see a flamingo. “What sort of lakes do flamingos live in?” is not. You would never find out about the toxic lakes just by finding the answer to the questions that naturally occur to you.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned from doing The Whippet, it’s that cool facts never walk alone. There’s always, always some other rad thing I would never have found out about on the same Wikipedia page as the first cool fact. For example, flamingos also have special glands in their beaks that filter out salt water. That’s a third cool flamingo fact I didn’t know, and none of these are flamingos’ main schtick, being pink.
2. Actually checking every time you notice a knowledge gap.
(Like me seeing the photo of the flamingo and realising I don’t actually know why they do that.) And getting better at paying attention and following up on the little sparks of curiosity.
Do that for a year and you’ll end up with a vast shoreline of knowledge where you know a little bit about heaaaaaaps of stuff and have little outwardly growing promontories and peninsulas of areas where you know a pretty decent amount.
I like these as rules to live by and also as ways to attempt to circumvent the always-narrowing funnel that internet holes, targeted ads, curated feeds, etc. etc. can often lead us down.
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My pup keeps yelling SHOTGUN every time we get in the car, and, PLAY ME SOME SUGAR RAY, BOY!!!!!#olive#wonderdog#thewhippet#dogsofinstagram#doglife https://www.instagram.com/p/BozX1D1lg0x/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1kep5hyscjth5
When your copilot is still recovering from a hangover on a road trip. #olive#dogs#doglife#dogsofinstagram#thewhippet https://www.instagram.com/p/BoxS5HqFmh_/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=gxrwcov0mjef
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