Napoleon was about average height for his time. A cartoon outlived the facts. Don’t let a meme be your teacher.
CREATIVITY
WHAT THIS MEANS
Jokes travel further than corrections, and they keep travelling long after the original argument is settled. Cartoonists exaggerated a man for political reasons and the exaggeration became what everybody knows. That is how most popular impressions of people and places get built: not from evidence, but from whatever version was most fun to repeat.
When you notice that your whole idea of someone comes from jokes, go and find one dull reliable source about them. Look for the plain detail rather than the famous story. It is worth doing for living people and places too, since the same process is running right now.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
What have you learned from a joke and never corrected?
MORE IN LEARNING & CURIOSITY
- You can’t divide by zero; the answer is undefined. Some questions have no answer, and spotting that is a skill too.
- The best tutors don’t answer fast. They wait while you figure it out, even when it’s uncomfortable.
- You’ll remember the teacher who believed you could figure it out. Be that for someone younger.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.