I’m never quite sure what to think about being proud of not knowing a fact. On one hand, knowledge itself almost certainly has positive value, even if that value is very small. On the other hand, making the effort to acquire very low-usefulness knowledge generally has negative expected utility, so I can understand prioritized a particular body of knowledge as “not worth it.”
Of course, pride is really about signaling, so it makes sense to look at what sort of signal one’s pride is sending. If someone seems particularly knowledgeable about a low-status topic, such as celebrity gossip, I judge them negatively for it. I assume most people do this, though with different lists of which topics are low-status (or am I just projecting?).
Ultimately, I think the questions to consider are:
As an individual, does prideful ignorance of a topic you consider not worthwhile send a signal you want to send, and
As a community, is this the sort of signal we want to encourage?
I’d ding you for having confessed to being proud of your ignorance, except that what you confessed ignorance of was not, technically speaking, a fact.
I’m never quite sure what to think about being proud of not knowing a fact. On one hand, knowledge itself almost certainly has positive value, even if that value is very small. On the other hand, making the effort to acquire very low-usefulness knowledge generally has negative expected utility, so I can understand prioritized a particular body of knowledge as “not worth it.”
Of course, pride is really about signaling, so it makes sense to look at what sort of signal one’s pride is sending. If someone seems particularly knowledgeable about a low-status topic, such as celebrity gossip, I judge them negatively for it. I assume most people do this, though with different lists of which topics are low-status (or am I just projecting?).
Ultimately, I think the questions to consider are:
As an individual, does prideful ignorance of a topic you consider not worthwhile send a signal you want to send, and
As a community, is this the sort of signal we want to encourage?