Things you just don't get

pickarooney

What things will just not enter and stay settled in your brain no matter how hard you try and how many times someone explains them to you? Things that should be within the scope of your understanding, that is, not some wild counterargument to string theory or what women are really after.
In college, lambda calculus and polymorphic linked lists were by ultimate downfall - there was just no way I could comprehend them. I'd think for a brief moment that I had it, and then it all just fall apart in tears of frustration as I'd realise it made absolutely bugger-all sense.

In the real world, it's colour properties. There is just no explaining to me what exactly is the difference between hue, saturation and brightness and how these things aren't included in the RGB value of a colour.

I'm not looking for explanations for any of the above, just interested to know where people's brain speed-limits lie.

connundrum

C++, Microsoft Excel configurations and the taxation system. God damn all of it! :mad:

Rabies

Life. But I keep on trying.

Nalz

women
perl prog language
cornflakes cerial boxes

polmorphic linked list => fun!

Rb

Theres nothing I don't get if its explained to me.

Sleepy

How otherwise intelligent people can profess a faith in religion.
How someone wearing a Scottish football shirt can't see the irony when they say they hate the British.
The purpose or value of a HR department.

TBH, when it comes to academic pursuits I can understand most things, the problem for me is remembering it.

User45701

for me its "lowed music in a pub/club"

i don't see its purpose unless you are on pills of coarse but ive never done them because im not into that music dance dance shight.

zuutroy

Programming in all its forms. I just can't do it. In terms of remembering stuff; I've been told at least 20 times why they switch off the lights in a plane for t/o and landing, but no matter how many times I'm told, I'll never remember.

Pighead

Toilet Brushes. Pighead has never been able to understand how the whole concept of toilet brusing works.

Right, so you flush, look down into the bowl and see bits of poo stubbornly clinging on to the side of the bowl, you pick up the toilet brush and scrub until the bowl is shining. Brilliant, until you look at the brush and see that its covered with poo. Whats the next step after that?

There have been too many times I've been left scratching my head in someone elses bathroom holding a toilet brush covered in shit.

seamus

Rody Bolands & Flannerys. Crap music, terrible pub layout which causes you to trip over everything and get bumped into by every single drunken culchie in there, and a massive long trip to the toilets.

Just cannot understand why someone would want to subject themselves to that.

Right, so you flush, look down into the bowl and see bits of poo stubbornly clinging on to the side of the bowl, you pick up the toilet brush and scrub until the bowl is shining. Brilliant, until you look at the brush and see that its covered with poo. Whats the next step after that?

Put the brush in the water and violently slosh it about to remove the poop. Then flush the toilet and use the flowing water to further clean it.

Miss Fluff

That "programme" Deal or No Deal

Chemical Formulae

Pighead

seamus wrote:

Put the brush in the water and violently slosh it about to remove the poop. Then flush the toilet and use the flowing water to further clean it.

I presume the "violently sloshing it about" occurs after you flush initially? If so are you saying its standard practice to hang about in the toilet waiting for th etank to refill so you can flush a second time? Maybe Pigheads toilet is old but the toilet at home takes about 3 minutes before its ready to flush again.

TequilaMockingBird

It just won't stay in my head, that if I drink 2 bottles of wine its going to hurt the next day. I forget this regularly....

Stephen

Any advanced mathematics at all, i just don't get it, which made doing a BSc rather difficult :eek:

Also religion, like sleepy said.

Kipperhell

Seeing walkie talkies for sale so regularly with loads of fancy features. How many people need or want them?
Woman's inability to take out her purse while in a que yet take ages putting money back in said purse in a orgainsed way. If they are that orgainsed take the money out before you get to the till.:mad:

Gordon

seamus wrote:

Then flush the toilet and use the flowing water to further clean it.

While spinning it. The spinning is important. Think of Mr. Miyagi and Danielsan in Karate Kid II when he shows him how to spin the little drum thing between his hands.

I don't understand grammar in Greek, I know all the words but I can't put them together properly.

I don't understand vlookup/hlookup on excel, and I'd really like to. But I just can't understand it.

kevmy

Any form of large beauaractic system. They just make simple things hard. I cannot understand why anyone would want to work in one of them. See: the health service, electoral register people, people paying my wages in the college, any county council project etc.

Rabies

seamus wrote:

Put the brush in the water and violently slosh it about to remove the poop. Then flush the toilet and use the flowing water to further clean it.

What about splash back?

Karl Hungus

Bad music. It's just beyond me how anyone can possibly like the stuff that's in the charts.

I remember a discussion about U2 on the music board, where someone kept going on about how the band have sold. It boggles me that there are actually people in this world who are so stupid, so shallow and so easily led, that their only reason for 'liking' something is that they sell more than the next band. I say liking there with a grain of salt, because I don't actually believe these people actually do like something in the common sense of the word, but rather profess to liking something because it's what they're supposed to like.

None of that ever suprises me, because without such people there probably wouldn't be shows like You're A Star, Big Brother, or I'm A Celebrity* Get Me Out Of Here. It's the same reason that for some unconcievable reason that every idiot seems to go wild about Paris Hilton. "OMG, she's really really rich, I worship her."

Anyway, I just cannot understand the mentality. I suppose it's like wondering how an ant thinks. It just does it's thing.

*My arse

Oh yeah, and the whole religion thing, but I guess that's covered by the easily led idiots rant.

Pighead

Gordon wrote:

While spinning it. The spinning is important. Think of Mr. Miyagi and Danielsan in Karate Kid II when he shows him how to spin the little drum thing between his hands.

Theres spinning involved as well! Fcuking hell, oh for the times when Pighead could simply poo in his nappy and wait for his mother to change it.

Vowing to stop wearing nappys was the worst New Yeas Resolution ever. 9 days in and I'm struggling already.

JungleBunny

This optical illusion.
No matter how hard I try to understand it just doesn't make sense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same_color_illusion

BaZmO*

"Things I just don't get"???

Eh.....regular sex!

Anything to do with Visual C++, it just wrecked my head

Zapho

I remember back in secondary school I could never understand the concept of
moles or molecular weight in chemistry. Luckily, I do understand maths of every
other kind, which I suppose is necessary in engineering.

Also I don't get "reality tv". Who the hell wants to watch a group of people
living out their normal everyday lives in front of a camera? Who cares? I'd rather
live my own life, thanks very much!

Rabies

BaZmO* wrote:

"Things I just don't get"???

Eh.....regular sex!

Find a hooker, pay her to be your g/f. Both of you win.

Gordon

Zapho wrote:

I remember back in secondary school I could never understand the concept of
moles or molecular weight in chemistry.

They taught you about moles in chemistry?

Stephen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_%28unit%29

Owen

I'm going to chime in with the whole Religion thing. People still believe in a Magical Fairy World with every lasting life and happiness? PMSL.

I don't get people who take 5 minutes at an ATM, and I don't get people who brake completely at a junction, and then indicate. I also don't get pettyness at work - work would be so much easier if people were more laid back (In a personality sense, not a work ethic).

biko

Long term relationships - how do people manage not to kill each other after a year or two, or ten?
Foglights on during a nice clear day.
People who work themselves to death in pursuit of future happiness but neglect the "now".

Sam Vimes

biko wrote:

Long term relationships - how do people manage not to kill each other after a year or two, or ten?
Foglights on during a nice clear day.
People who work themselves to death in pursuit of future happiness but neglect the "now".

just don't go out with a cnut

biko wrote:

Foglights on during a nice clear day.

i agree completely. capital punishment should be brought in for some things

biko wrote:

People who work themselves to death in pursuit of future happiness but neglect the "now".

QFT

Sully

zuutroy wrote:

In terms of remembering stuff; I've been told at least 20 times why they switch off the lights in a plane for t/o and landing, but no matter how many times I'm told, I'll never remember.

Really? Interesting - iv never thought of that before. Dont suppose you recall it?!

quantum field theory and algebraic topology
I don't think it's ever going to make sense to me

I also don't understand people who come out with:
(quoted from creationism thread)

That is your rebellion against your conscience speaking. You know you are the sinner described in the Bible, and you know God is the One to whom you must answer - but you don’t want to know it and so you suppress it. But Truth will out.

yes again, a religion rant

This optical illusion.
No matter how hard I try to understand it just doesn't make sense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same_color_illusion

Ditto.

Genghis

98FM - Can't understand the attraction. At all. Crap music, crap presenters all day long.
ITV - Absolutely nothing I 'get' here. No show on entire schedule of interest. Especially Ant & Dec.
Late Night Phone in Quizzes - €1 a try, you don't even get on air and even if you do your 'right' answer is probably the 'wrong' right answer. Wake up people.
iPod owners - As music players, why would you buy one of these, spend over the odds and then be tied to apple forever? As a must-have fashion high-branded accessory - I can understand that. But only so far as I can never understand why people always blindly submit to marketing.

flanger20002003

Okay, so what's the deal with these 'angel' characters you see lined up along Grafton Street at the weekends? I mean they stand there dressed up in white or blue robes, with their faces painted the same colour, and basically stay there statuesque for an hour...I mean WTF is the point?! As a one time busker it kinda annoys me that they expect money, at least a busker shows some sort of liveliness, plays a few choons etc., these guys do pretty much nothin'...Just don't get 'em...

scojones

Ignorant people. In fairness, no matter what is going on in your life a little common courtesy goes a long way.

Snobs. See above.

Knackers. See above.

Marketing people. How someone can go to college and study marketing is beyond me. These people need to be burnt at the stake, along with sales people. What kind of a career is it? Seriously, all you care about is money. There's more to life than getting someone's credit card off of them.

The Catholic Church.

johnny_ultimate

Folk who overuse text speak - especially on the internet. It really doesn't take that much more time to write an extra letter, and makes it much easier for the poor person on the receiving side to read it. Maybe in actual text message form where there is a clear letter limit.... Just don't get it, makes folk look like idiots.

Specialised pink items - such as phones and PSPs. It boggles my mind that companies feel that an item in pink will attract more female consumers, when it in fact just makes items look vastly tackier. What boggles the mind more are people who actually buy into this bizarre gender discrimination.

The aforementioned scumbags. What goes on in their heads, seriously?

fits

Entropy. I have a good BEng degree, and I still couldnt begin to explain entropy. What the hell is it?

reality tv shows... I just dont get the attraction of them. at all.

Mrs_Doyle

johnny_ultimate wrote:

Specialised pink items - such as phones and PSPs. It boggles my mind that companies feel that an item in pink will attract more female consumers, when it in fact just makes items look vastly tackier.

The mind need not boggle, allow me to make sense of it for you.

Girls like pink things, (not all girls, of course, but a lot of them) from the day they were born they have been decked out in pink clothing and surrounded by pink wallpaper, pink duvet covers, pink school bags, pink ribbons, etc.

Companies, like Sony (creator of Pink PSP) and Nintendo (pink DS lite) needed a way of attracting more consumers,(making more money) and up until the creation of the pink psp/DS Lite, had not yet managed to capture the attention of the female market.

Ever since the launch of the pink version of the, already popular, handheld game, both companies have seen an huge increase in their profit margin.

So you see, tacky or not, it was a marketing move that made perfect sense.

I am only surprised they didn't do it before now.

exCrumlinBoyo

I simply do not understand Chinese but I do know the following riddle,

“If a Chinese can sneeze cheese, how much cheese can a Chinese sneeze, if a Chinese can sneeze cheese?

I don’t understand people who constantly complain about life and all that is wrong with it, and don’t do anything about it! Get off your arse and make s hit happen.

The other thing I can’t get over is that 60 feet wall… One day maybe…

Women, I will never get them…. Wonderful people, but crazy as s hit, in a nice way of course.

Humans in general. We strive to obtain the one thing that will make us happy only to find that we are not happy and strive to obtain the next thing that will make us happy…. What is with that s hit? Everyone is guilty of it. The grass is greener and all that c rap.

sioda

Prolog what a god awful programming language

Vinegar on battered food it just goes soft

Guiness varieties look yee had it right the first time stop feicing around

seamus

johnny_ultimate wrote:

Specialised pink items - such as phones and PSPs. It boggles my mind that companies feel that an item in pink will attract more female consumers, when it in fact just makes items look vastly tackier. What boggles the mind more are people who actually buy into this bizarre gender discrimination.

As Mrs Doyle says, it is actually that simple. Making things in pink increases the amount of people who buy them. Many girls like pink. My girlfriend is one of them. Functional isn't all that important to many girls. "Prettiness" is. I can't go wrong buying my girlfriend something that's pink. She just loves the colour. It's not discrimination, corporate brainwashing or otherwise something evil. It's simply a vast market based along similar lines.

Think of it this way;
Smirnoff did something quite similar. They brought out Smirnoff ice. It had red packaging, and was an alcopop. So it was considered to be quite girly, and had a big female following.
Then the brought out Black Ice. It was pretty much the same drink, except it came in "Evil" black packaging, and was accompanied by an ad campaign featuring nastiness and evil things.
And sales to men skyrocketed overnight.

connundrum

sioda wrote:

Vinegar on battered food it just goes soft

Thats why ya gotta eat it mad quick, so it doesn't get time to go soft

sioda wrote:

Guiness varieties look yee had it right the first time stop feicing around

I love all the Guinness varieties, makes me warm inside

I'll never understand why the Spanish come here every summer. The sun is over there ye mad feckers!

Dun laoire

Do Not Think Of A Pink Elephant!!!!

















































Shazzam!!

johnny_ultimate

seamus wrote:

As Mrs Doyle says, it is actually that simple. Making things in pink increases the amount of people who buy them. Many girls like pink. My girlfriend is one of them. Functional isn't all that important to many girls. "Prettiness" is. I can't go wrong buying my girlfriend something that's pink. She just loves the colour. It's not discrimination, corporate brainwashing or otherwise something evil. It's simply a vast market based along similar lines.

Think of it this way;
Smirnoff did something quite similar. They brought out Smirnoff ice. It had red packaging, and was an alcopop. So it was considered to be quite girly, and had a big female following.
Then the brought out Black Ice. It was pretty much the same drink, except it came in "Evil" black packaging, and was accompanied by an ad campaign featuring nastiness and evil things.
And sales to men skyrocketed overnight.

Good arguement.
Probably just a strange pet peeve of mine. More to do with the preference of pink over other colours that girls seem to have. The pretiness arguement does hold, but again it is just something I don't get, even when explained.
Much like Pighead and the toilet brush.

SystemError

I never got the concept of infinity.
I know it means forever but forever to me always meant "until the end".

And surely the universe cant go on forever
Where are the edges ? FFS you have to have edges !

Really freaks me out tbh.

ambro25

German grammar (dem-den-der... the "pan" thing). Only been at it 15-odd years, still don't get it (and yes, I know about gender and whatnot)

Followed by a lack of understanding about people interested in Tabloids, Religion and TV shows.

Followed by a general lack of understanding about Speed limits and Snobs.

Closing Doors

SystemError wrote:

I never got the concept of infinity.
I know it means forever but forever to me always meant "until the end".

And surely the universe cant go on forever
Where are the edges ? FFS you have to have edges !

Really freaks me out tbh.

Think about it this way: the earth doesn't have any edges, does it?

kevmy

ambro25 wrote:

Followed by a lack of understanding about people interested in Tabloids, Religion and TV shows.

People interseted in Tabloids and reality TV shows really get me. It's like fast food for the brain; makes you feel sluggish and guilty without the nice benefits of tasting nice.

SystemError

Closing Doors wrote:

Think about it this way: the earth doesn't have any edges, does it?

I consider the Earth's atmosphere it's edges. Yes, the atmosphere is round but round edges can still pass for edges

Sleepy

You can add me in on the 'not understanding why girls will buy something functional because it's prettier in pink'. I can understand the girl's liking clothes, furnishings, accessories etc for being pretty but in terms of a PSP, MP3 player, Mobile Phone etc, WTF?

I mean, I'd have bought the Wii no matter what colour it was...

astrofool

even it was only in pink?