Regardless, I agree with you and Macinac and Monica. Somehow, even without a TV, I manage to absorb enough pop culture to be able to function in offices that seem to thrive on that. And at my previous job, people didn’t mind that I didn’t get references – they already thought I was that weird girl who liked to talk about things like humanure composting, so not getting a TV reference was small potatoes by comparison. (Think I’ll go look up where the phrase “small potatoes” came from now.)

I’m with you. I’m not up to speed on who was voted off the island, nor do I know nor care about most sport outcomes. I do, however, know the current exchange rate versus the Euro and Yen, that Liechtenstein now has a bus stop that is covered by the Swiss Eurailpass, that there is a new AKC breed recognized out of Argentina, the best beer to have with schweinbraten, and that it is best to visit Tangiers in early springtime.

I think the differentiation is that some cultural literacy is “pop” and some is “durable”. I’m all in favor of everyone increasing their ‘durable cultural literacy’.

I agree with Max that people should base these connections on REAL interests, not “fake” ones for the sake of finding a common ground with someone.

Here’s the thing though: We know so little about all the knowledge that is out there that I can guarantee you you’ll find something, anything, interesting about a particular topic.

Taking the football example, I love soccer, but I know very little about the English Premier league, but a few minutes of research will teach you about the obsessive fan base and how they are a culture unto themselves, which is very interesting to me.

The key is finding a few things you ARE interested in in each particular topic. And trust me, unless you are a very dull person, you’ll find something. If you don’t, then you have other, more serious, issues.

There are 10 people who understand binary: those who do, and those who don’t.

Or too much fun. :-)

Thanks so much.

In high school, though, I worked in a university laborative where everyone was extremely knowledgeable about classical music, instruments and music performance and the majority of non-work related talk centered on this. I had played flute from age 7, yet I had a very difficult time keeping up or adding much to these conversations, though I enjoyed them. I can honestly say that my sad little contributions did not harm the regard people had for me or my work in any way. Which was good as I was spending all spare time trying to master the Krebs cycle and such!

I don’t get into sports to a great degree though.

If if were interested enough become culturally literate about what’s on TV (sports or otherwise), I’d much rather ask the enthusiast pertinent questions to fill in the gaps my knowledge. People love to share their expertise, and by asking questions is real time rather than doing “homework” online, I get the most relevant information without running into data dumps. Sometimes I even get the benefit of short circuiting trivial conversations by telegraphing my ignorance with questions like, “What’s a field goal?”