One way to make life more fulfilling and exciting is to simply have an open mind. A lifelong curiosity and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge can let you reinvent yourself repeatedly. After all, there’s always something new you can learn, even though sometimes it may be hard to find the energy and motivation to keep going.
Thanks to the Facts by Guff Instagram account, we can receive our daily dose of knowledge by reading the completely random, unexpected, and unusual tidbits of information they share every day. Whether it’s enlightening their followers about goosebumps, baby elephants, or diamond rain, it certainly triggers a desire to know more.
Bored Panda has collected some of the best facts from the page, so continue scrolling and upvote the ones you might not have known about! Although just to warn you—once you get started, you’ll probably want to keep reading until your curiosity is satisfied.
Psst! Be sure to check our previous posts full of cool and interesting trivia right here, here, and here.
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This Instagram account was created by Guff, a data-driven content company that aspires to enlighten people with daily trivia and wisdom. They have amassed more than 825K followers by sharing different bits of information every single day. Unexpected and fun facts seem to often catch people off guard in the best possible way, and many think that it's worth their time.
Staying curious and open to new ideas is not only enjoyable but also provides us with a dopamine rush. Whether it’s learning something new about history, science, art, or even modern pop culture, there are many benefits to keeping our brain cells active.
A study by researchers at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business has found that our brains are hungry and always willing to learn new details about the world. Researchers revealed that "new information acts on the brain’s dopamine-producing reward system in the same way as money or food."
"To the brain, information is its own reward, above and beyond whether it’s useful,” co-author of the study and associate professor Ming Hsu, Ph.D. told Neuroscience News. “And just as our brains like empty calories from junk food, they can overvalue information that makes us feel good but may not be useful—what some may call idle curiosity.”
However, knowledge usually becomes useful when it’s put into context. While many think that learning cool and interesting facts is a waste of time, it’s quite the opposite. Sure, you can find out everything you need with just a few searches and clicks on hyperlinks but it won't do any good to your critical thinking skills.
Scott H. Young, author of Ultralearning: Accelerate Your Career, Master Hard Skills and Outsmart the Competition, wrote that factual knowledge determines the speed you can acquire new knowledge on a topic. "The more you know, the faster you learn." It also is an important driver of our reading comprehension and other high-level skills, for example problem-solving. When you’re reading a book, it’s much easier to understand the deeper meaning if you’re already familiar with the topic.
"You can’t reason critically or creatively without first having amassed a large amount of factual knowledge," Young explained. "This is why the existence of Google and Wikipedia doesn’t reduce the need to learn facts. Something being a Google search away doesn’t mean it’s available in the background to allow you to parse new information easily."
If you find yourself wanting to expand your mental horizons, the Wall Street Journal bestselling author suggested to simply be curious. By reading more articles and books, and by watching a variety of shows or movies, you always surround yourself with new knowledge. If it's hard to understand everything at first, don’t be discouraged and try to look it up.
Young advised not to be afraid of topics that are new to you: "Knowledge is exponential, so if you’re not used to reading something, you’ll learn a bit less. However, as you read more about it, you can read faster and smarter." So picking up a book that might be "above your level" could take longer but will get easier with time.
Just remember, we are the ones using the newly learned facts and putting them into context. So if you’re wondering whether you’re ever going to use this stuff, one day you actually might. Sometimes, our brains are capable of the most wonderful things, and bringing two completely unrelated ideas into one is certainly one of them.
I'm not a fan of his acting, but Keanu seems to be a genuinely good person.
True, so whatever you do don't think about how they feel when their new babies are taken away and placed in a field where they can still hear each other's cries. I live in the midst of cattle farms, and it's heartbreaking.
Charasmatic megafauna get a lot of attention. There are probably thousands of species that are less likable that are in the same situation.
My kid goes to a Montessori school where students clean up everyday. I think it's a good idea - helps kids feel responsible for their school, which helps them become responsible citizens.
I'm always torn when it comes to things like this. On the one hand, I don't feel like the government should tell us "you can't do that because it isn't good for you". Your not my mom, back off. Sugar isn't good for me either. The last person I dated wasn't good for me. On the other hand, I'm all for the government telling us it's the law to wear a seatbelt, or that my doctor can't smoke crack before he operates on me. And this, Ladies and Gentlemen, is why I am not a politician. Glad I'm not the one who has to make the decisions on these kinds of things!
The thing is, here in NZ we have free healthcare and smoking related diseases are costing us dearly. We only have a population of 5million, and taxpayers are paying for these people in care, to the detriment of other people who don't have self inflicted diseases. We cannot sustain things unless we bring in the smoking ban.
Load More Replies...If Jacinda Arden were cloned and have more of her as country leaders, the world would have been a better place for sure.
I’d rather have Chlöe Swarbrick, the politician who got famous for saying “OK, Boomer” when a conservative heckled her. She has much better ideas about how to improve the housing market. We could definitely do much worse than Cindy, though.
Load More Replies...I wonder if they'll have measures in place to prevent an underground market, with its associated crime and violence?
Tobacco doesn't have the same appeal as other drugs though. Less of a high, more of a smell, less fun than booze. A decent alternative is vaping. I don't think it'll be a lucrative enough market to be anything similar to the prohibition days.
Load More Replies...So tobacco is illegal contraband now? I mean, what's stopping these kids from getting cigarettes from their older peers? I'm honestly interested in seeing how they make this work.
Similarly to alcohol, I suspect. Kids get people to buy them booze, but making it that much more difficult is very often enough.
Load More Replies...Smoking is awful. But, people should not be forced to not do it. It's a personal choice.
I find it ironic that as we ban smoking tobacco we are legalzing smoking weed, which has similar lung side effects. Besides people should be allowed to put whatever poisons in their body they want. Tobacco, Weed, Crack, etc. Let people be free to destroy their bodies as they wish. Tax it, and use the taxes to fund health projects to cover the costs of their harm
Yes! Go and tell all the smokers their breath is rancid. I'm sure as soon as they realise it they'll just quit on the spot. /s
Load More Replies...I'm genuinely curious, if we change tobacco to marijuana, alcohol, or any other substance that can be abused, does that change people's opinions? Many nations have started legalizing marijuana, for instance, and a 2020 referrendum in New Zealand to legalize recreational marijuana sale, use, and possession was narrowly defeated 51-49%.
I'd love it if this were true but I'm really quite skeptical. Questions: what does the ban mean if someone is caught smoking? Is it punitive or is it seen as a public health issue? Will the exacerbate current black markets already in existence? We know that in the us prohibition was wildly unsuccessful. What would this look like in other countries with difference outlooks and different laws?
alot of places are smoke free and you arent allowed to smoke in a car with children, you dont often even see people smoking anymore
Load More Replies...None of those kids will be smoking their parents' cigarettes in the alley bc IT'S BANNED!
A packet of cigarettes costs $AUD30 here so smoking rates amongst the young have nose dived.
"they want to create a smoking free generation" - wow, breeding humans the way you want them
NZ does a lot of things right, But I don't think this is one of them. Smoking is one of many addictions. So the younger generations can't smoke? They'll find something else. What needs to be solved are addictions and addictive behavior. It's a mental health issue.
Smart move! Too bad the governments of the world didn't sue the tobacco companies and their owners and executives out of existence!!
I wonder how they will keep babies from inhaling their parents smoke?
Sinking behind the garage will make a comeback. Educate to eradicate.
The goal, of course, is flawless. But I can't digest governments' guidelines messing with the individuals' choices. Because next should be alcohol, sugar, coffee, etc. And frankly, its nobody's business but each one. And what if the government keeps being paternalistic in other aspects of our life? Are we kids? Disgusting, and scary.
Good luck! I quit almost a year ago. I still kinda want one once in a while, but not enough to actually light up. You can do it!
Load More Replies...But they could just keep raising the tax on them like the US I guess they're more concerned with people's health than a profit
Makes sense. You can't just yank the rug out from those already addicticted, but help prevent indoctrinating potential future addicts. And with socialised medicine they'll be saving a fortune of the taxpayers money not having to treat a bunch of unnecessary cancer and such.
yeah that's all well and good but vaping and worse has replaced smoking here so frankly its just made things worse
What is "vaping and worse"... I know what the vaping is, just wondered what your other examples were? And how has it made things worse?
Load More Replies...But they still haven't told us where the tax tobacco products generates will come from. Billions of dollars generated by tobacco products, paying for health, education, welfare, housing, roading, earthquake recovery, the military etc. will be gone.
Absolutely. Tax on cigarettes pays for more healthcare than smokers use! So they are actually doing a good thing for society! Plus they die sooner so are less of a strain on the system :D
Load More Replies...I remember watching this on tv with my dad before he passed away. We were so happy for him!
Then I pity those who don't. I have no emotional stability at all
Fun fact: Men who kiss other peoples' wifes befor going to work live an average of 5 years shorter.
That's so sad ☹️. Glad they managed to convince her not to. Not just because she's a celeb, but because she's a human
Note: this post originally had 94 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
Several of these so-called "facts" are misleading, unverified rumours, or downright false. Looks like Guff is not a source you can trust. But that might not be surprising coming from a content company that sells "hyper-engagement" and churning out content that is primarily designed to "drive human emotions." 👎
I very much welcome this addition. Extra, easy to access context is always a boon.
Load More Replies...I would say most of these "facts" are full of crap! They have no proof of what they are saying and most of them are so ridiculous that I had to stop scrolling.
But i find the news here interesting and sometimes double check on other sites to verify it if its legit
Load More Replies...This is the type of post I like... I get so disappointed when the title of a post is awesome but then you open it and it's nothing but words... pictures add a little pizazz especially when it refers to a person or place so that way you can get a better idea of what it looks like...
This was surprisingly sad, but I'm happy to have seen it. If you don't tear up Googling "Pocho crocodile funeral", you're not really living.
In scrolling through answers a lot of down votes were given if the interesting facts were not interesting and it was so stated!
Several of these so-called "facts" are misleading, unverified rumours, or downright false. Looks like Guff is not a source you can trust. But that might not be surprising coming from a content company that sells "hyper-engagement" and churning out content that is primarily designed to "drive human emotions." 👎
I very much welcome this addition. Extra, easy to access context is always a boon.
Load More Replies...I would say most of these "facts" are full of crap! They have no proof of what they are saying and most of them are so ridiculous that I had to stop scrolling.
But i find the news here interesting and sometimes double check on other sites to verify it if its legit
Load More Replies...This is the type of post I like... I get so disappointed when the title of a post is awesome but then you open it and it's nothing but words... pictures add a little pizazz especially when it refers to a person or place so that way you can get a better idea of what it looks like...
This was surprisingly sad, but I'm happy to have seen it. If you don't tear up Googling "Pocho crocodile funeral", you're not really living.
In scrolling through answers a lot of down votes were given if the interesting facts were not interesting and it was so stated!