We love our HDTV, except when it comes to explaining it. According to Hitachi Research, 66% of American consumers surveyed say they would not be comfortable trying to explain HD options such as 720p, 1080i and 1080p. But here’s the real kicker, as ZDNet points out, 72% of college-educated adults are “not comfortable”, while only 59% of those without a college education say the same. Guess that degree’s not worth what it once was, huh?
For your own HDTV brush-up course, check out the Wikipedia explanation of different HD formats. Image above is a (slightly-altered) copy of the entry’s illustration.
Ignorance is bless.
this is funny, because sadly, i worked at best buy through college, explaining HD to people, but that was when manufacturers were selling widescreen & fullscreen hdtv’s side-by-side, what a pain in the ass that was….
I think Jack nailed it. Those without the education don’t know what they don’t know, so they feel more confident in explaining things.
The more you learn, the more you realize how much there is that you don’t know and the less certainty you tend to have in a given area.
You see a lot of people speaking with great conviction on various topics – spouting provably incorrect statements. They’re very confident, but ignorant.
Conversely, a lot of experts will admit that there are still unknowns and with qualify their statements to allow for the possibility of new data.
Nobel prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman often said that part of being a scientist is understanding what it means to _know_ something.