Achievements in Ignorance: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Discworld]]'' likes this one.

** Tiffany Aching reading the dictionary cover to cover because nobody ever told her she shouldn't and Susan Sto-Helit successfully teaching seven -year-olds algebra and, when told it's too hard for them, replies that so far they haven't figured that out. It is needed to be said that examples of children learning something before adults would think they're ready to learn it are probably [[Truth in Television]]. A bright child may be reading books meant for adults by the age of eight or ten, though they probably won't understand [[Parental Bonus|everything they read]].

** Bergholt Stuttley "Bloody Stupid" Johnson, of [[Discworld]], is such an incompetent architect and inventor that he ends up creating buildings that are [[Bigger on the Inside]], and circles with the pi equal to exactly 3. Three of the national projects that he undertook can fit in a normal pocket. The full list is [https://web.archive.org/web/20120916232227/http://wiki.lspace.org/wiki/Bergholt_Stuttley_Johnson here].

** In ''[[Discworld/Equal Rites|Equal Rites]]'' Esk teleports something without a counterweight and was able to do it because she didn't know it was impossible, because she hadn't been formally taught.

** Discussed in ''[[Discworld/The Last Hero|The Last Hero]]'', when Leonard asks for journeymen craftsmen, rather than masters, because he has no use for "people who have learned the limits of the possible".

** [[Anthropomorphic Personification|Death]] gives this explanation for how he can move through walls and otherwise tell [[The Order of the Stick|tell the laws of Physics to sit down and shut the hell up]]. His advice to Mort in his stint as his apprentice is not to think about it too hard and forget that you know that you can't move through walls. Mort is able to do this when [[Centipede's Dilemma|he isn't actively thinking about it]] as he escapes a group of thugs by backing through a wall.

** An interesting example is Lord Rust, Ankh Morpork's foremost military leader by dint of heritage,; the man is a total incompetent with absolutely no tactical ability or military knowledge whatever, and does not seem to comprehend the utter futility of attacking a vastly superior force on their home ground with virtually no provisions. Whilst this has the obvious result of killing almost every man under his command, Rust is completely unharmed, even though he leads every suicidal charge from the front. By all laws of probability, he should be dead long ago. However, Rust has the unusual ability of being able to completely and subconsciously ignore anything that contradicts or is outside his extraordinarily unrealistic worldview; assuming that it simply cannot exist; including physical danger. He has been reported as charging directly at enemy lines surrounded by projectiles without being scratched, arrows have apparently changed direction to avoid him (and hitting his men). On the Discworld, sufficiently powerful belief can alter physical reality, and magic has been described as more or less ignoring the laws of physics.

** Cohen and his Silver Horde slaughter the Agatean ninjas in ''[[Interesting Times]]'' because nobody told them that Ninjas were invincible. OfMind you, course[[Conservation of Ninjitsu|there were a lot of ninjas]].

* In ''[[HitchThe HikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy]]'', the key to flying is "throwing yourself at the ground and missing", being interrupted mid-fall and forgetting to hit, and then—andthen — and this ''is'' vital—notvital — not thinking very hard about how you should be falling. Otherwise [[Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress|gravity will glance sharply in your direction]] and demand to know what the hell you think you're doing.

** This method was also behind the invention of the Infinite Improbability Drive. By way of explanation, the theory behind the ''Finite'' Improbability Drive was well-understood by that point, and largely consisted of ensuring that probability was twisted ''just'' right to ensure an otherwise improbable result. For example, ensuring that, at parties, every particle in the hostess' undergarments simultaneously quantum-leaped two feet to the left. The INFINITE''Infinite'' Improbability Drive was considered something of a [[Holy Grail]] for scientists, but after centuries of trying they gave up and declared that it was next to impossible to create one. An underclassman, cleaning up after one of those previously mentioned parties, realized that if it was ALMOST''almost'' impossible, there must be some real possibility of it, and decided to find out what would happen if he worked out how improbable such a drive was, fed the result into the Finite Improbability Drive, gave it a ''really'' hot cup of tea, and turned it on. Moments later, a fully functional Infinite Improbability Drive was created.

*:* In another series of strips, Ratbert decides to fly simply by flapping his arms. Dilbert insists it can't be done. Bob the Dinosaur gives Ratbert some advice that turns out to work, resulting in him flying near an annoyed Dilbert and remarking "This must be so embarrassing for you."

* In ''[[Garfield]]'',* Odie chases Garfield up a tree resulting in both of them sitting on a high branch. Jon immediately tells Odie that "dogs can't climb trees". Garfield's response? "It's amazing what one can accomplish when one doesn't know what one can't do."

* * Schroeder can play extremely difficult piano pieces on a toy piano where the black keys are simply painted on.

=== [[Visual Novels]] ===

'''Coop''': Hey, good thing no one ever told me that. }}

* An early episode of ''[[Xiaolin Showdown]]'' has three of the four heroes trapped in an invisible box by [[Enemy Mime|an evil mime]]. Raimundo is able to make noise by sliding the Mantis Flip Coin against the "invisible" bars, while; it was previously established that the walls were solid, and there were no bars. They use this to escape when they realize the box acts like whatever they think it does. This raises the question of how they got trapped in the box in the first place, considering they didnMime'ts believeconstructs thatfunction itsomewhat wason there until they walked into itbelief.

*** Another one hadOne ''[[Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner]]'' short has them both run off thea cliff. - but only Wile E. falls, and he looks downup andruefully holdsat his prey while holding up a sign thatreading says"I roughlywouldn't "Thismind - except that it defies the law of gravity.!" Road Runner, who is ''still'' floating, holds up a response sign that says "True - but I never studied law.!"

** There wasIn a ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]'' episode which explained the phenomena., Elmer, teaching the young toons, saidteaches that as long as thea toon didn't look down, itthey wouldn't fall. This in itself is a shout out to an earlier Disney work where Walt himself explained this as the Plausible Impossible effect.

* In the ''[[I Am Weasel]]'' episode "Law of Gravity", I.R. Baboon was actually able to defy gravity up until the point that he actually gets to read the actual Law of Gravity. Later on, Baboon ''destroys'' the Law... and every lawyer on Earth starts floating helplessly in mid-air. Weasel explains it only affects lawyers because they're the only ones who ''understand'' the law.

* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' :

** Homer achievedmanaged anto [[Epic Fail]] so massive that he managed to |cause an actual nuclear meltdown in a nuclear plant simulation truck with no fissionable materials]]. He also managed to light a bowl of cereal on fire by pouring milk on it.

* ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'': In "Life of Crime" Spongebob and Patrick [[Beyond the Impossible|set up a bonfire]] while they believe to bethemselves wanted men, and the instant Patrick wonders on how they could possibly light a fire while underwater, it fizzles out.

* Professor UntoniumUtonium from ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' kindmanages ofto ''is''create thishis Trope.most Everyuseful timeinventions he(including inventsthe something useful, he doesGirls) somostly by accident. (ThisIt's includesprobably thenot Girlsa themselves,good byidea theto way,mention as described in[[Humungous Mecha|the show'sDynamo]], openingsomething sequence.)he He can't'did'' seem to do anything usefulinvent on purpose, however.

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130807224202/http://irrationalgames.com/insider/what-might-have-been/ This interview with Ken Levine] reveals that if he'd ''known'' how difficult and borderline impossible it should have been to create ''[[System Shock 2]]'' with the resources and technology he had at the time, he probably would have failed to deliver what is now a classic.