The more you know about something, the less you enjoy it. But... — Owldo

Gagandeep Rangi

The more you know about something, the less you enjoy it. But...

September 16, 2026

Intro

Expert wine drinkers know that most of the wine in this world is shit, so there’s mathematically speaking “less wine” in the world that they can enjoy. But casual drinkers, who won’t know the difference and just like drinking it, have “more wine” in this world that they can enjoy.

So who’s well off here? The snobbish expert or the happy ignoramus?

I have this half a baked thought in my head that there are so many experts or enthusiasts near me. for coffee, wine, gaming, food, photographers, content creators etc.

And the more i hang around them in different settings, the more I see clearly that its difficult for them to casually enjoy something.
- Food suddenly has texture
- Coffee has notes and acidities
- photos and videos have frames and angles
- content creators have retention tactics for which they’ll probably go to hell

And this makes me think that

maybe ignorance really is bliss?
maybe we traded happiess for knowledge?
But there’s more to it I believe and it reveals something fundamental about humans.
and what my half baked thought has concluded is that its about:
immersion vs awareness
- ignorance gives you immersion, knowledge gives you awareness or a appreciation
- And all of us universally have been on the both sides of this
This is best explained by magic
- or more accurately, a magician performing magic
- There are two kinds of wonder.
- One: I can't believe this exist, and the other: I can't believe something figured out how to do this.
- The first one is more enjoyable. The second one is more deeper.
- The first one hits you when you’re innocent and ignorant
- The second one gives you a deeper form of appreciation
You lose the ability to experience something, but gain the ability to understand how it works
Before you know something, you experience the result, but after you know little bit about something, you start appreciating the process.
This happens with games, movies, music, photography, careers, even, your own emotions and relationships

[dont talk] Examples

Coffee is the perfect personal example I have. Because I fortunately have proper coffee enthu friends. And I’ve deliberately kept myself from falling into this rabit hole. I drink any coffee, all roasts, all temperatues, all variants, even instant coffee (I know, I know). Because I’ve seen my friends making coffee that looks like a science experiment
which also tastes great btw
But it also takes so much time and money. I’ve left this area deliberately ignorant or what I like to say, littleskin, which is I’m knowledgeable enough to talk and participate but ignorant enough to not be able to make it well or tell minute differences.
Gaming is another good example because childhood games felt magical because you didn't understand game design, monetisation, limitations, addictive tactics, pacing, games were fun, not than products, engineered to produce joy, not retention and money grab opportunities.

[dont talk] but this knowledge or awareness changes the texture of enjoyment

All this is not to say that knowledge or awareness, inherently ruins enjoyment, but it changes the texture of it
To a Beginner, something is amazing just because it is, but an expert marvels at how it was accomplished
You're replacing the wonder of the thing with the wonder of how that thing came to be
It becomes less innocent, but more sophisticated

Its this same Awareness that increases the bar for us,

first from innocence to awareness, then from awareness to sophistication.
because now the seams becomes visible
For example, a filmmaker might notice Incredible cinematography that casual view will completely miss, simultaneously, being not able to stop noticing bad cinematography
knowing more about something makes you appreciate something more deeply, but enjoy it less spontaneously
I don't think there's anything bad in this. It's just the natural next step of how you consume things or just how we age essentially.
this same expertise can make you harder to impress but at the same time easier to amaze
The same knowledge that makes you recognise manipulation also lets you appreciate craftsmanship
Experts become difficult to impress, but once you genuinely exceed their expectations, there reaction becomes much more stronger

But what can become dangerous Is when you become so knowledgeable that that most of the experiences you feel day today are just un-enjoyable.
this makes people snobbish i believe.
if nothing amazes you, so nothing about you is amazing
[nothing surprises you, so nothing about you is surprising]

and its irreversible, which is a good thing.

because you can't un know something
once you see a pattern, you start seeing it everywhere,
growing up is partly accumulating these "you can't unknow this anymore" moments and letting everyone know what you know and listening to other people, what they know that you don't
It's the curse of pattern recognition
The more you see, the better you become at predicting something

But then what to do?

We know that we can’t stop not knowing.
From the moment we are born, we keep knowing more and more about everything
The goal is to become knowledgeable enough to start appreciating the machinery and still experience the magic.
to move from Easily impressed to better impressed
A Casual wine drinker will get amazed by the texture of wine more, but wine experts, enjoy Wine more than casual drinkers
There are levels to every game.
The gaming example discussed earlier, about how games were better when we knew less about their inner workings,
Well, games now have better graphics, accessibility, interfaces, more sophisticated storytelling, more tools to create and publish games
We just can't say blindly that people enjoy things less now because they have more available on their hands

[adulthood]

Maybe it's all just a combination of novelty, mastery, nostalgia or just growing up.
Maybe, this is just how adulthood works
Childhood is full of things you don't understand
Then the world explains you things.
Then you become an adult yourself and start understanding Money, relationships, work, sex technology, entertainment politics, society
And the words world somehow becomes less magical
That is not to say that we don't get amazed day today
But we get amazed, not because the thing merely exist, but we get amazed on how it exist. Why it exist.
perhaps the challenge is merely learning to create wonder, despite understanding the machinery behind
And this might be even more relevant now in the AI age, because that wonder has gone away, and it's up to us to get it back in our lives

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Gagandeep Rangi

Note taking and not talking.

Published on Owldo