those unspoken rules

Every organization, workplace, school, etc etc. has a set of unspoken rules. Sometimes they just have to be said. One of the other "unspoken rules" that applies to most aspects of life is "everyone knows everyone" or "it's who you know." I can think of so many examples. Just at my new university, at least three faculty knew other profs from my previous universities. When I helped in making decisions of who to hire at the previous job, there were some applicants that had distinct reputations that made it clear to us that it would be very unwise to hire.

I'm trying to come up with some of those "unspoken rules" for my young class that people just know as they get through college...and those who don't learn, are still flailing around with their too-cool-for-school pomposity.

One of my favorites by Socrates is, "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."

As the people in my program say (and it's very true), the most you know, the more you realize you don't know. Most truly smart people realize that there's never an end to learning. Most researchers and professors I know are always wanting to find out more and to learn more.

I used to find it annoying when boring people would make fun of my love for NPR or my love for learning, but now I am just glad I have the drive to want to learn new things. I just space out when the NPR-haters discuss things such as how cool they were in high school.