The Guardian estimates that Microsoft has lost hundreds of millions of dollars worth of business because of lacking in geographical knowledge among its developers. To address the problem, the company is going to start having geography classes to avoid future “bloopers.” (The Guardian misspelled the word. Ironic)
Just so I wasn’t a superior feeling jerk, I took the survey myself. I scored a perfect 20. The survey is quite simple, and I’m still a superior feeling jerk.
I don’t think Microsoft is any more to blame than any other corporation. Hell, they provide some great tools, like MapPoint and Terraserver. But I do agree that we as a nation really need to improve our geographic understanding. The survey’s highlights show American’s to be especially lacking. I guess I’ll just have to become a geography teacher someday.
I missed the one regarding religion. It seems to me that Mexico was just guessing on that one based one their results on other questions.
I felt good about being able to identify the various countries by number. Israel was the hardest one for me there, so I picked it out based on the numbers in the choices rather than studying the map.
So we go to Afghanistan, drive OBL into a cave, cause it to be a more difficult place for the locals, leave, head to Iraq, etc. Yet ‘we’ don’t even know where these places are, their major exports, their ‘terrorist’ groups, etc.
It’s all very sad. Especially United States citizens who can’t identify the US.
I missed the religion one as well. Got all the rest of them right, so I will just choose to blame my anti-christian bias for that one.
I guess I qualify as a “superior feeling jerk” for getting a 20 out of 20. I couldn’t believe how many people didn’t know where the Pacific Ocean is.
Well, the Pacific Ocean is in two paces on that map. Its just confusing!
As far as the religion thing:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/worldrel.htm
Don’t forget South America!
Man, if that is all you need to know for geography, I should have been a geography major.
Is it bad that I’m not shocked about the lack of knowledge in the US? The news is based on fear, not knowledge, yes?
p.s. 20 out of 20 too, I was also pleased to have had success witht he paint by number country part…but I was thinking the whole time, why don’t they pick somthing more obscure to identify?? I guess it’s to expose our ignorance?
Maybe this is a sign that you should go and make millions at Microsoft Andy?
I missed the religious one, too. I think because I just wanted it to be wrong. I mean, going to a wedding last night with nary a drop of booze! What kind of Christian bullcrap is that!?
Oh yeah, I got one other question wrong because I didn’t understand the nature of the test. I read an early question and thought, “This has got to be a trick question. I mean, isn’t this supposed to be some kind of tough geography test? It can’t be that obvious answer there.” So I picked another one. That’s right, it was the one about where Queda and the Taliban originated. One of the answers was, of course, Afghanistan. I figured it would have to be an idiotic question to ask if that were the right answer so I picked Pakistan or something figuring they moved to Afghanistan later and I was outsmarting the test. Then four or five questions later–maybe sometime around being asked to identify the Pacific Ocean–I realized that my test-taking strategies were as self-defeating as my strategies with The Ladies…
The religion one was the only one I missed, too. Identifying Sweden was tough; like Alan, I used the answer choices as a crutch. I liked that 3% of Italians couldn’t identify their own country. Come on, guys, it’s the boot! Il pattino! But yes, we Americans are just shameful.