Posted by Jonathan Labaree on September 13, 2004 at 19:48:05 from 207.5.234.19 user JLabaree.
In Reply to: Re: A Ransome Moment... posted by Robert Dilley on September 13, 2004 at 19:04:39:
Robert’s anecdote about the order of the planets brings to mind the memorable exchange between Holmes and Watson. I think it may even be from their very first meeting. Upon being told by Watson that the Earth revolves around the Sun, Holmes said something along the lines of: “I will do my best to forget that.” When Watson asks why, Holmes responds (again paraphrasing) “because it’s of absolutely no use to me. The brain can only store so much information. I toss out useless pieces of knowledge so I will have room for things that actually matter.”
While I agree that a 22-year-old not knowing the cardinal points of the compass is shocking, I can’t really believe that knowing the order of the planets is of much material use to most people. Surely it’s not unusual for us to forget stuff we learn if we don’t use the information regularly (I certainly hope so, otherwise I’m in big trouble). I think, after some thought, I could get the order of the planets right (with perhaps a bit of wiggle room in the Uranus neighborhood), but I would certainly not think less of anyone who can’t. Indeed, I was just out in the western part of the US and was surprised by how many times I had to refer to what I previously thought was a familiar map of that part of the country to keep the relative position of those enormous states straight in my head.