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It's really kind of freaky how....

H

Hubris

Platinum Member
When you learn something for the first time, it starts to pop up everywhere. Like I was reading here in OT yesterday and learned what the "Peter principle" was. And today I was reading a humor e-mail that made mention of the same principle. Now, I never remember ever hearing this phrase before. But now, the day after I learn about it, and what it is, I read it in a joke that I wouldn't have gotten without knowing the definition.

This happens to me a lot (though historically it was mainly with words I looked up the definitions for that started popping up everywhere), and it always whigs me out. Anyone else notice this weirdness?
 
Yeah maybe you've been exposed to these things in the past, but since you didn't know what it was, you just kinda block it out and ignore it.
Then again, there are terms and ideas that have been around for years which suddenly work their way into pop culture for a short time by word of mouth or what have you. For example, I've never heard of the Peter Principle, but omma do a search for it on google now that you've mentioned it, and perhaps use it in the near future.

Edit - Ahh The Peter Principle - people are promoted to their own level of incompetence. Hehe see it all the time. Now that I can define what goes on where I work and say it to my coworkers, maybe others will start using that word too. Is there a word that defines this situation?
 
yup. Happens to me all the time. It's not just single words either, it is events that have taken place in the past and other things. Its kinda weird how it happens.

I guess that is the benifit of learning! 🙂
 
ya, i know what your talking about. I hate that. its worse when its the other way though....like you go out with whores and stuff on drunken nights in highschool...then you go steady with a really clean girl. After that, you hear from your friends that the broken down trailer park crack Ho uve been duping for 2 years has been flinging her nasty STD infested hooha all around town, and only now does she make guys use condoms.

What a few nights busted off your ass can mean in the long run. Lets put it this way, I pee through a tube and I only shower in the dark.

ya, its that bad
 
Sounds like a self-reinforcing mental image to me. You see something and it sticks in your mind (e.g., after you learn what the Peter Principle is), then the next time you see it you tell yourself that you're seeing it a lot. So every time thereafter when you see that something, it counts as one more occurrence of seeing it. On the other hand, the countless times that you don't see it, you don't even think about those. Damn it, now I've forgotten what it is. Well, the idea sounded good in my head.
 


<< Sounds like a self-reinforcing mental image to me. You see something and it sticks in your mind (e.g., after you learn what the Peter Principle is), then the next time you see it you tell yourself that you're seeing it a lot. So every time thereafter when you see that something, it counts as one more occurrence of seeing it. On the other hand, the countless times that you don't see it, you don't even think about those. Damn it, now I've forgotten what it is. Well, the idea sounded good in my head. >>


Good call. I guess that's another part of the equation.
 
I don't think it's entirely that you notice it more now that you've learned what it is. Because I'm fairly sure that something as odd as the "Peter principle" would have stuck out in my mind. As SOON as I saw it in a thread, I went and found out what it meant. It was the first time I had ever seen it. And then I saw it again the next day.

I dunno, I just think it's kinda cool how once you learn something, it seems as though it happened when you were meant to learn it, and now that you have learned it, there are all sorts of places in which to now apply it. But I think that's most likely too metaphysical for these boards (from what I've seen anyway 😀 ).
 
Same thing has happened to me before too. Once found out an admin password at my school was 'impatiens' (a type of flower) and everywhere i looked for the next month there were impatiens for sale, my friend's mom was planting impatiens, etc....
 


<< I learned what "antepenult" means a while ago, and I haven't seen it used anywhere. >>


Wow, I just looked up antepenult, and that is one of the strangest definitions I have seen. It makes me question why that is even a word?! I don't think I could use it in a good sentence.
 


<< Is there a word that defines this situation? >>



meme (mm)
n.
A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Shortening (modeled on gene), of mimeme from Greek mimma, something imitated, from mimeisthai, to imitate. See mimesis.]

Now you have TWO new ones...that one is pronounced "meem" by the way.
 
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