Some of the Things You Are Better Off Not Knowing

There are some things you are better off not knowing, but you won’t know until you know it.

Some things you are better off not knowing. As a huge proponent of education, I often quote knowledge is power when explaining somewhat boring and mundane tidbits of information to my Sacramento real estate clients. I like to freely share my knowledge. After all, I’ve got 43 years in the real estate business, have sold who knows how many homes; probably thousands. If each sale doesn’t teach a Realtor something new, the Realtor is not paying attention to her transactions.

However, I wouldn’t want you to misconstrue what I mean. This is not like Trump blubbering crazy crap. I’m not saying science isn’t real or that Sandy Hook wasn’t a tragedy or that climate change isn’t happening, because all of those things are real. Too real to ignore, even though some idiots and elected officials believe otherwise. I’m saying sometimes there are things you are better off not knowing. The problem is you won’t know you shouldn’t know until you after you acquire the knowledge.

Like, for example, how hot dogs are made. You probably don’t want to know how they do it. It’s not completely an old wive’s tale. You’d likely convert to kosher hot dogs if you knew. Or, how plastic surgeons do a full facelift. It’s really disgusting to even think about, how they slice your skull and peel skin over your nose,  similar to slicing a chicken skin to stuff with garlic, except it’s your face. Or, how thousands of dust mites are living in your bed right now, this very minute. Go look.

Out of all the things you are better off not knowing, how sound is added to a movie is one of those things I wish I had never learned. Ever since I watched a documentary about how sound effects are created and inserted, I now realize every bird that chirps, every siren that goes off and every gun that is fired is not the actual sound picked up while filming. It is artificial or recorded and slipped into the sound track. Footsteps are fake. And it definitely lessens my enjoyment of watching a movie. I cannot suspend a belief that is required to fall into a movie because I can often tell that the sound is not real. It’s not truly integrated.

Instead of being swept away by the storyline, I am faced with the reality it’s make-believe, a movie.

Not only do I know the sound is not real, but I start thinking about ways I could improve upon the sound. Instead of some random guy yelling hey in the distance or watch out, I might have used a different vocal or maybe a tire screech. Some of the sound is lame. If your only job is to select sounds for a movie, don’t you think you’d be highly selective of the sounds you choose? Wouldn’t you agonize over the selections and pick only the best? Or is it like shopping in Google, you get so tired of searching that finally you just pick the last thing you looked at because you’re worn out.

Does any of this have to do with Sacramento real estate? No, not really, I just wanted to vent about things you are better off not knowing.