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This blogpost is particularly intended for those who have spare-time on their hand that waste it doing unproductive things... been there done that. Now, I absolutely understand, empathize, and participate in doing un-academic things (or on a broader level, un-career-focussed things for fun -- as everyone should). Yet, that being said, like how in school you learn "un-career-focussed" things to very proficient levels, I've always been an advocate for learning basic geography. It absolutely pains me to see the amount of clueless Americans on those TikTok or Instagram interviews absolutely bombing basic questions about the 7 continents.

To begin, I want to be clear that I'm preaching as a priest, not a convert... anything I mention in this blogpost is something that I know well enough to a point that I'm comfortable asking others to do it as well. You can learn more about what I particularly know at this video here.

Basic American Geography

This is an absolute shock to me that people didn't grow up learning where all the states are located. When I was younger, my parents bought me an American-state-map puzzle and forced me to do it over and over again in order to remember the locations of every state. Anyway, I think that every single American should aim to know at least:

The location of 45 states in the USA (it's understandable to lump some of the smaller states of New England together)
The capitals of every state.
The location of the three countries in the North American Continent.
The main economic powerhouses of each state (if not the capital)

The reasons why you should learn this aren't necessarily for perspective-case (ie it's not really that this will broaden your perspective of the world or anything like that because the US is relatively homogeneous across the 50 states), but rather for education-purposes. Knowing this information is a sign of education, and especially when interacting with foreign audiences, it is viewed as incredibly immature to be unknowledgeable about the US (especially as an American)!

It goes without saying that, if time and interest permit, you should try to learn the location, appearance, capital, main economic hubs, and main exports/imports of every American state and territory. Furthermore, learning the location of Canadian/Mexican provinces/states and main economic hubs is also beneficial.

Global Geography

Author: Abhiram Kidambi
Written: 08-06-2024
Tags: THOUGHTS, SPORTS