People Online Are Sharing Facts That They Say “Feel Illegal To Know,” And Here Are 27 Of Them

You probably know the saying “knowledge is power”, something we've all likely heard in our lifetimes in one form or another. Well, the saying doesn’t lie – knowledge, in fact, holds a lot of power. 

It allows people to make informed decisions, understand concepts, and solve problems, leading them to personal growth and career advancements, not to mention driving progress, innovation, and economic development on a societal level. 

There are plenty of ways to improve your knowledge, from traditional to quite unconventional ones. The former would include things like reading books, getting an education, or simply gaining knowledge through practice; you get the gist. 

The less traditional paths to education can take many forms. For example, knowing how informative social media is nowadays can surely be a source of education in a way. Granted, being aware of possible misinformation is very important here (and anywhere else, to be honest).

To make sure the information you’re presented with is trustworthy, you can do the CRAAP Test (yes, the name is a bit funny, but bear with us). This includes checking the information’s currency (or in other words, recency), relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose – factors whose names form the abbreviation CRAAP. And that’s just one of the ways to be wary about the information you’re consuming.

Besides social media, you can gain knowledge from things like newsletters, podcasts, or today’s list. We filled it with facts that netizens in some online threads deemed “illegal to know”. 

Of course, it’s just a joke; you shouldn’t worry about getting into legal trouble for knowing these, it just signifies how random or even weird some of these facts are. Since we don’t want to spoil anything, you just have to check them out for yourself (and don't forget to upvote!).

As we already acknowledged, knowledge is a powerful and useful trait, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have its drawbacks. One of them is the so-called “curse of knowledge.”

It’s a cognitive bias, which occurs when a person with specialized knowledge assumes others also have it. Basically, they start to take said knowledge for granted and it gets hard for them to remember times when they didn’t know it, now that it comes as second nature to them.

So, as I might already understand, such bias can start affecting a person's relationships, as they might have a hard time understanding how someone doesn’t get the same things as they do.

For example, a teacher or professor may not be able to wrap their head around how students can not get a concept that comes easily to them. In the long run, it can cause some friction between them and disturb the relationship. 

This curse can also hurt the person themselves, not only their bonds with others. When a person takes their knowledge for granted, they can’t fully grasp how much of it they have accumulated over time, and how much they improved from a starting point, which leads to undervaluing their achievements. 

Since meaningful praise (even if it comes from yourself) is proven to boost motivation, performance, and memory, when a person deprives themselves of it due to said undervaluation, in extreme cases it might stagnate their progress. 

So, to avoid such extreme consequences, when learning new things, you should attempt to stay as mindful of it as possible, but without letting it take away the joy of discovery. A tricky balance, but what life situation isn’t, right?

Do you know any interesting or odd facts that weren’t mentioned here? Share with us in the comments!