“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance. It is the illusion of knowledge.” ~ Stephen Hawking

There I was, sitting in a friend’s living room with a group of people watching a television show called American Ninja Warrior. The show features buff young people working through a series of increasingly tough obstacle courses that obviously take a lot of upper body strength, physical coordination and athleticism to complete.

As we watched yet another competitor lose his grip on the upside-down climbing wall thing — after first defeating the swinging rope stage, the jump-for-the-spinning-styrofoam-thing stage, and the stage where contestants used an unattached gymnastics bar to swing themselves upward on a ratcheted ladder — people in the room were both cheering and groaning.

“Aw MAN!” shouted one of my friends as a competitor failed and plunged into the water below the obstacle. “I could do better than that fool. How hard could it be?”

Then he took another swallow of his beer and settled himself more comfortably into his well-worn end of the couch.