Archive What If? Blag Store About A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language. News: Announcing my Thing Explainer book trip . Come say hi! Thing Explainer word checker Ten Thousand |< < Prev Random Next > >| |< < Prev Random Next > >| Permanent link to this comic: http://xkcd.com/1053/ Image URL (for hotlinking/embedding): http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/ten_thousand.png I try not to make fun of people for admitting they don't know things. Because for each thing "veeryone knows by the time they're adults, every day there are, on average, 10,000 people in the US hearing about it for the first time. Fraction who have heard of it at birth = 0% Fraction who have heard of it by 30 ~= 100% US birth rate ~= 4,000,000 year Number hearing about it for the first time ~= 10,000 day If I make fun of people, I train them not to tell me when they have those moments. And I mi...