I used to think similarly, but I've come to assume that everyone has holes in their knowledge and many have trouble knowing where the holes are. It is kind of

I used to think similarly, but I've come to assume that everyone has holes in their knowledge and many have trouble knowing where the holes are. It is kind of like learning a language and realizing - when your car breaks down - that you've not learned any of that vocabulary. These holes sometimes are in fairly practical places. If you simply don't know much about medicine and assume nyquil is safe - and at the same time, don't know much about how cooking changes things (chemistry, if only we taught it this way)... well, you get Nyquil Chicken. Nevermind that this person is intelligent in other areas of their life, this is where they found themselves. Also, youth. The youth (teens) have more holes and, as a cruel joke, more hormones.