Taken the wrong way this could sound egotistical but don’t you think you know more about just about any subject than the average american? Let’s deconstruct that statement – it doesn’t mean that you know more about everything than anyone else or any single person off the street. It just means that on all general topics you likely know more than the averaged American.
I think it’s a true statement for me with the possible following exceptions:
- Guns – i know very little about guns and since many people hunt, maybe the average American knows more about firearms than i do
- Childbirth – Figuring than most women know more about childbirth than i do + all the fathers out there
- Christianity – Close call here. If you say “religion” i think i can pull it off, but if you start to get into Christianity in general, i might be exposed to the bible school teachings that i never received.
But everything else i’m feeling pretty good about: animals, country music, geometry, ethnic cooking, etc.
How about Abstract Algebra (check wikipedia), Particle Physics, Organic Chemistry, medical stuff in general (diseases, drug interactions, etc.). It would seem to me that there’s a great deal of specialized knowledge that an individual has that the general populus doesn’t. For example, I could probably name you most of the restaurants on Castro St. in Mountain View, but does that make me smarter than average? 🙂