Today I was watching Stars on Ice on TV. It was pretty cool. But because of my knowledge of figure skating, and my comparisons to watching the USA Nationals comp a while back, I kinda judged a bit too harsh. "What, no rotational jumps Dorothy Hamilton?" Nevermind she's in her 50s. "What, that is not good sit spin depth, Kurt Browning." He's in his 40s and it's his last year skating. So instead of being like "oh cool, that's so neat, he's skating to 'Singing in the Rain' that's cool!" like a normal human, I got my silly technical judging idiocy on. It ruined it for me.
One of the earliest instances of knowledge ruining things was, sushi. I went to eat sushi. I was happy as the restaurant had it for a buck a piece. What's wrong with that? A few years ago, in middle school, back when I didn't know as much about cooking, food, and Asian food, I'd have thought it was the best treat ever. I'd have been so happy with my $6 sushi meal while waiting for tires on my mom's car. But, now that I knew how sushi worked, I thought "this is frozen fish, it's not fresh." So I felt almost a bit ripped off. But I know in middle school, I'd have thought it was the coolest thing ever. I remember at Epcot even, buying some miso soup and shrimp crackers probably for like $5, and totally LOVED it, but now that I know what I know now, I'd have been like "s**t, that's expensive, that's only like $1.35 at my Asian market back home."
I don't even like getting burgers, as I just think to myself "the reason these burgers are so juicy and tasty is the restaurant uses 73% ground beef." (I worked at a restaurant notorious for good burgers, and this was the secret.) So while everyone else goes out and apparently enjoys burgers made by others, now that I know the "magic" it's gone. When I eat a good restaurant burger, I go "well I could made that at home for like 1/3 the price."
Man, I feel sad. Maybe King Solomon was right when he said "With much knowledge comes much sadness."
03 Feb 2013, 2:21 pm
ignorance is bliss?
