History Main / AchievementsInIgnorance

** Taken to its extremes by Dr. Dinosaur, whose inventions just plain don't make sense even within the context of a comic that once used the Large Hadron Collider as a proton cannon. This causes ''extreme'' frustration in Robo, who gets to watch the laws of reality bend into pretzel shapes because of a delusional dromaeosaurid inverting gravity with a spanner, a light bulb, two car batteries, and a broken calculator.

* In the book ''Literature/FallenAngels'', the main character Perry is charged with setting up claymores to provide suppressing fire in a sneak attack on some Vietcong soldiers. Just before the firefight begins, another character sees a Vietnamese soldier sneak out and turn one of the claymores around, but the gunfire starts before he can do anything about it. However, once the fight ends, they realize that none of the claymores fired in their direction. In other words, Perry had set up that particular claymore ''backward'', and the enemy [[NiceJobFixingItVillain had turned it around again.]] Especially impressive, given that claymores are labelled ''This Side Forward''.

* In ''Literature/GoodOmens'', this seems to basically be Newton Pulsifer's ''superpower.'' Once, he tried to create a little useless circuit because it was advertised that "If turning the ON switch does nothing, it's working". When Newt turns on the circuit, he's inadvertenly built a radio that picks up '''''Radio Moscow'''''.

** In the Elseworlds ''ComicBook/BatmanSupermanGenerations'', an aged Alan Scott and Hal Jordan are attacked by Sinestro. When a Green Lantern falls, Scott picks up his ring and Sinestro is stunned Alan can combat his yellow-colored attacks. After Sinestro is defeated, Alan and Hal confront the Guardians, who reveal that the "yellow impurity" was a fiction to [[YourMindMakesItReal create a"mental block" to prevent]] Green Lanterns from misusing their power. They bring up that in Alan's first outing with his own ring, a thug got in a lucky shot with a bat which convinced Alan his ring couldn't work on wood. Thus, because Alan instinctively reacted as he would have with his original ring, he never thought yellow was a weakness and could overcome it.

** When Kyle Rayner first got the Green Lantern ring, his first-ever battle was against Mongul. Naturally, Mongul assumed his yellow skin meant Kyle's ring couldn't work and was shocked when Kyle was able to beat him down. Aiding Kyle, Superman was also surprised, bringing up the yellow impurity and Kyle brushing it off with "News to me." [[note]]It would later be revealed the yellow impurity was because the entity Parallex had been in the Central Power Battery. With Parallax having possessed Hal Jordan and the Battery destroyed, the yellow weakness no longer worked for Kyle.[[/note]]

* ComicBook/GreenLantern Simon Baz can ignore the limitations on his ring's capabilities because no one told him about them.

* In ''Film/TheManWhoKnewTooLittle,'' thanks to how he's convinced that [[[AndYouThoughtItWasAGame he's just participating in a live-action role-playing spy game]], Wallace stops the bombing of a conference, prevents the start of a new Cold War, takes out two dangerous spies and convinced a legendary assassin to retire. The best part is that everyone else is convinced they're witnessing some sort of bad-ass superspy in action and don't grasp Wallace has no clue what's happening.

* On ''Series/TheRookie'', everyone is stunned when dim-witted cop Smitty reveals that while tripping on a combination of cough syrup and diet pills while writing ''Series/ThisIsUs'' fan fiction, he ''accidentally founded QAnon.''

* In ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', when Church [[JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind enters Caboose's mind]], he finds that everything inside there is based on how Caboose understands the world around him. At one point, he needs to use Tucker's sword -- the sword [[LoyalPhlebotinum can't be used by anybody but Tucker]], but Caboose is too dumb to understand this, so the sword works for Church inside Caboose's mind.

** This was the method behind the invention of the Infinite Improbability Drive. By way of explanation, the theory behind ''finite'' improbability generators was well-understood by that point and largely consisted of ensuring that probability was twisted ''just'' right to ensure an otherwise improbable result. For example, ensuring that, at parties, every particle in the hostess' undergarments simultaneously quantum-leaped two feet to the left. The INFINITE Improbability Drive was considered something of a HolyGrail for scientists but after centuries of trying they gave up and declared that it was next to impossible to create one. An underclassman, cleaning up after one of those previously-mentioned parties, realized that if it was ALMOST impossible, there must be some real possibility of it, and decided to find out what would happen if he worked out how improbable such a drive was, fed the result into a finite improbability generator, gave it a ''really'' hot cup of tea, and turned it on. Moments later, a fully-functional Infinite Improbability Drive was created. Not long after that, the underclassman was lynched by the now-thoroughly-annoyed scientists.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':
** When ComicBook/TheJoker met Batman-expy Midnighter, Midnighter, whose {{Stock Phrase|s}} is "I've fought this fight X thousand times in the supercomputer in my head so you've already lost" can only stare at the Joker with utterly no idea what to do next.
** ''ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}'': When Cassandra Cain was fighting the Joker, Cassandra was initially losing. Cassandra is able to analyze her opponent's fighting style to predict their next move, but the Joker has no fighting style - [[ConfusionFu even he doesn't know his next move]].
* ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur}}'': Tweedledope is a member of a group of villains called the Crazy Gang who can somehow create AppliedPhlebotinum by just tinkering with junk. No doubt the most miraculous piece of machinery he created this way was the sapient portal-creating robot Widget. It should be noted that Widget's sapience derived from the amnesiac and temporally displaced mind of [[spoiler:Kate Pryde, the ''ComicBook/DaysOfFuturePast'' version of Kitty Pryde]] (it takes a very long time for Widget, let alone else, to figure this out), and later examination suggested that there's a mystical element involved.

* Franchise/GreenLantern Simon Baz can ignore the limitations on his ring's capabilities because no one told him about them.

* ComicBook/{{Taskmaster}} was on the receiving end of this in his fight with ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}. Taskmaster has the ability to analyze and duplicate any physical action, so he can instantly master any combat style just by observing it. Deadpool starts acting completely at random and kicks his ass.

* ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'': Invoked. Bruce comments on his safe being supposedly uncrackable. [[ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} Selina Kyle]], who has just cracked it, quips that she didn't know it was uncrackable.

** Despite having no training whatsoever in the magic arts, Ned is able to figure out how to use Doctor Strange's sling ring to make portals, though he's unable to close them, [[spoiler:or lead him to the right Peter Parker.]] This is explained as him being told by his lola that they have magic in their ancestry.

* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'':

** Nynaeve instinctively reinvents a form of Healing that uses all Powers instead of just Air, Water, and Spirit. The Aes Sedai of the Third Age are all adamant that this is dangerous and are shocked it even works, never mind that it actually works ''better''. This is a running theme in regards to the Aes Sedai, that much of what they can and can't do is limited largely by tradition. That and a massive lack of initiative and imagination. The veil of general secrecy inherent within the White Tower is to blame for much of what was lost, with certain Aes Sedai not finding students they could trust to pass their skills on to and consequently taking their knowledge with them.

* In a episode of ''Series/PowerRangersZeo'', [[ButtMonkey Bulk and Skull]] are able to defeat a group of Cogs, [[MechaMooks foot soldier robots]] of [[BigBad King Mondo]]. The Cogs usually analyze fighting style and predict movement but because Bulk and Skull are [[TooIncompetentToOperateABlanket not trained in combat]], their "style" is erratic, so the Cogs cannot defeat them.

* Creator/NeilGaiman's ''Comicbook/TheSandman'' meets Hob Gadling, a 14th-century peon who believes that people only die because they accept death as inevitable. By choosing to reject death, he believes he can live forever. Now, Hob's premise is completely, horribly wrong, but Death is so amused by his ignorance that she grants his wish. In a roundabout sort of way, this also makes him completely correct, [[RightForTheWrongReasons just not for the reason he thinks]]. Hob ended up becoming one of Dream's few friends.

* ''LetsPlay/AchievementHunterMinecraftSeries'': In episode 159, the crew is playing with a mod that adds [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs dinosaurs]]. Ryan and Geoff are looking at a machine that creates eggs and embryos from DNA, and Ryan's wondering why it doesn't seem to be working. Geoff puts a chicken egg in the machine as a joke, and it turns out that eggs are the "fuel" for the machine.

--->'''Ross: ''' Wait, woah! T-they all died! Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait! WAIT!!! That counted?! THAT FUCKING COUNTED?!\\

** However, this same example is played with later in the series. [[spoiler:When Michael and Janet [[ChekhovsGag meet Doug Forcett]] in Season 3, they find that Doug has [[GoMadFromTheRevelation run himself ragged]] trying to act on the principles he derived from his fugue state. He is neurotically obsessed with [[FriendToAllLivingThings doing as little harm as possible to anything and everything around him]] so as to qualify for The Good Place, to the point where he causes great [[FacialHorror pain]] and [[AgonyOfTheFeet discomfort]] to [[ExtremeDoormat himself]]. To make matters worse, in the very next episode it is revealed that he did it AllForNothing, as it would still be impossible to reach the threshold for good behavior before he dies. This is thus a rare example of [[DeconstructedTrope an achievement in ignorance making a person's]] ''[[DeconstructedTrope entire life]]'' [[DeconstructedTrope worse rather than better]], however, it also provides the main characters with the clues they need to suggest how best to change the afterlife, and [[ReconstructedTrope he is completely unaware of how important he is to the fate of the universe until he reaches the afterlife himself]].]]

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!

%% Image and caption selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1364053449017561900
%% Please do not change or remove either without starting a new thread.

* ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo:''

** Taken to its extremes by Dr. Dinosaur, whose inventions just plain don't make sense even within the context of a comic that once used the Large Hadron Collider as a proton cannon. This causes ''extreme'' frustration in Robo, who gets to watch the laws of reality bend into pretzel shapes because of a delusional dromaeosaurid inverting gravity with a spanner, a lightbulb, two car batteries, and a broken calculator.

* ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur}}'': Tweedledope is a member of a group of villains called the Crazy Gang who can somehow create AppliedPhlebotinum by just tinkering with junk. No doubt the most miraculous piece of machinery he created this way was the sentient portal-creating robot Widget. It should be noted that Widget's sentience derived from the amnesiac and temporally displaced mind of [[spoiler: Kate Pryde, the ''ComicBook/DaysOfFuturePast'' version of Kitty Pryde]] (it takes a very long time for Widget, let alone else, to figure this out), and later examination suggested that there's a mystical element involved.

* Alfred E. Neuman of ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' fame displays this on various classic covers -- sitting on a swing hanging from a branch he is holding, painting a white stripe down the middle of a road by painting a white road black and not painting the middle, etc.

* {{Discussed|Trope}} in ''Comicbook/YoungJustice:''

--> "You don't know my son, you tell him he can do something and he's going to believe you."

** Despite having no training whatsoever in the magic arts, Ned is able to figure out how to use Doctor Strange's sling ring to make portals, though he's unable to close them, [[spoiler:or lead him to the right Peter Parker]]. This is explained as him being told by his lola that they have magic in their ancestry.

* Often seen in [[AcceptableTargets Polish jokes]] ([[SelfDeprecation more often than not]] [[NWordPrivileges told by Poles themselves]]). One such joke: {{Satan}} locks an American, Russian and Polish scientist each in their own sealed room in Hell, and gives each one a pair of one-tonne solid steel balls, saying whoever can come up with the most impressive feat after seven years may be permitted to leave and go to Heaven. After seven years he returns to see their progress. The American has made the balls hover in the air and glow, which impresses the Devil. Next he goes to see the Russian, who has made [[HehHehYouSaidX his balls]] roll around the floor whilst playing [[Music/PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky Tchaikovsky]]. But the Pole impresses him the most: he's broken one of the balls in half and lost the other.
* It is sometimes joked about that before UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton discovered gravity, people had the ability to fly.

** Alcatraz was raised in the Hushlands, making Free Kingdomer magic and technology equally arcane to him. Since he is more skeptical about common axioms (technology is defined as something anyone can use and magic is restricted to certain people), he can make connections nobody else can, like [[spoiler:Smedry Talents are the same as Lenses]].
* ''Literature/TheBelgariad:''

* ''Literature/CircleOfMagic:''

* Creator/JimButcher's ''Literature/CodexAlera:''

* This was a theme of Creator/DouglasAdams's works. For instance, in ''Literature/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency'', a major part of the plot revolves around a computer programmer attempting to understand why there is a sofa lodged in his staircase, which was moved up there by a pair of removal men, twisted around in every possible angle, and declared irrevocably stuck. The programmer creates a computer simulation, which determines that it isn't possible for the sofa to have been stuck up there in the first place at all. He assumes his program is wrong but begins to wonder if he may have discovered a whole new branch of physics. This was based on an exaggeration of a real thing that happened to Douglas Adams while he was at university, but the story ''does'' have an explanation given later on. TimeTravel caused a door to appear in the wall where there wasn't one before, and the people behind it were nice enough to open the door so the mover could get by. When the door vanished, there was no longer any way for it to go back the way it came.

* ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar:''

** This was the method behind the invention of the Infinite Improbability Drive. By way of explanation, the theory behind ''finite'' improbability generators was well-understood by that point and largely consisted of ensuring that probability was twisted ''just'' right to ensure an otherwise improbable result. For example, ensuring that, at parties, every particle in the hostess's undergarments simultaneously quantum-leaped two feet to the left. The INFINITE Improbability Drive was considered something of a HolyGrail for scientists but after centuries of trying they gave up and declared that it was next to impossible to create one. An underclassman, cleaning up after one of those previously-mentioned parties, realized that if it was ALMOST impossible, there must be some real possibility of it, and decided to find out what would happen if he worked out how improbable such a drive was, fed the result into a finite improbability generator, gave it a ''really'' hot cup of tea, and turned it on. Moments later, a fully-functional Infinite Improbability Drive was created. Not long after that, the underclassman was lynched by the now-thoroughly-annoyed scientists.

** Graysons also are the known galaxy's experts in nuclear fission power. While everyone else had switched to fusion for safety and environmental reasons, Grayson had a very low-tech base and a lot of heavy metals, including radioactives. After several centuries, this resulted in safe, reliable, cheap, and powerful fission powerplants, so effective that the Manticoran navy adopted them for their small combat ships/"fighters".

* In one of the ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'' novelizations, ''The Book of Atrus'', Katherine has been secretly learning how to write Ages, and when she shows one of her books to Atrus, he patronizes her by saying something like "Good idea, but it couldn't work in practice." She just tells him to flip to the last page, where a link exists to a fully stable, torus-shaped world with one side always facing the sun and viable life on both sides. Not only does this impress Atrus's socks off, but it fully drives home the fallacy of Gehn's way of thinking: In an infinite universe, anything that ''can'' exist, ''must'' exist somewhere.
* Hugh Hoyland, the protagonist of Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/OrphansOfTheSky'', on learning his people's world is actually a spaceship, decides to teach himself how to pilot the ship. According to all common sense of astrogation, no single person can learn the necessary skills to fly a ship by himself, especially one of the size Hoyland was on. However, because all knowledge of this common sense was never printed in text, he never realized this and thus taught himself all the skills. This was repeated later in the novel when Hoyland, not realizing the difficulty of managing a landing and the sheer danger his life is in, successfully lands his craft on a planet.

** In ''Ogre Ogre'', Smash Ogre gains genius-level intelligence[[note]]For an ogre. In human terms, he's above average[[/note]] from holding an [[PunnyName Eye Queue vine]]. We learn later that the vine's effects are normally both temporary and illusory (a person ''thinks'' [[KnowNothingKnowItAll they're smart]]). Smash's intelligence lasts until he's told this, where he lapses back into ogreish stupidity. He ''then'' realizes that the vine let him subconciously tap into his human side (Smash is half-human, via his mother). Once he realizes this, not only can he call on said intelligence at will, he can transform fully human.[[note]]Which later became a common ability of crossbreeds with human stock)[[/note]]

* A gag in ''Series/TheGoodPlace'' reveals that every religion and theologian's idea of the afterlife was pretty inaccurate, with most of them getting only about 5-10% right - except for an EruditeStoner named Doug Forcett from Calgary, who got really high in the 70s and started rambling about life after death. Somehow, by pure chance, he got ''over 90%'' of it right. He's something of a revered figure in the afterlife as a result.

* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'': Kelly will do this on occasion. One episode had Bud distracting her by giving her a ''[[Literature/WheresWally Where's Waldo]]?'' book. She runs all over town trying to find Waldo and, at the end of the episode, he is sitting next to Kelly at the dinner table.

* ''Music/KidsPraise'': This happened in-universe in one of the albums: Psalty tried to invent a machine that stretches time, and instead invented a machine that travels through time...and did this ''by accident''!

* This happens a lot as a result of the Creator/McElroyBrothers (and their dad, Clint) having a tenuous grasp on the rules of TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons in ''Podcast/TheAdventureZoneBalance''. Merle consistently casts spells above his spell slots because his player, Clint, has no idea how they work. Zone of Truth, instead of forcing the target to not lie, instead inexplicably causes people to spout their secrets. Taako uses Phantom Steed, a spell that summons a ghostly horse, to summon a bicorn named Garyl. Most egregious is the moment dubbed "Arms Outstretched", from the arc ''The Suffering Game'': Magnus [[spoiler:has his soul knocked out of his body]], and Taako, in an effort to save him, uses Blink to travel to the Ethereal Plane, where [[spoiler:Magnus's soul]] is. Merle then casts Planar Ally to summon a being from a different plane - namely, Taako and [[spoiler:Magnus's soul]]. Needless to say, that's not how any of those spells work, but [[GameMaster Griffin]] allows it because of RuleOfCool. It's acknowledged by Griffin in ''The The Adventure Zone Zone'', who states that they're basically playing [[ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes Calvinball]] with the standard D&D rules. At live shows, he insists that the audience ''not'' call him and his family out on not knowing the rules.

* In a story from "X Minus One" entitled "Project Trojan" a British intelligence agency enlists the help of a science fiction writer to come up with plans for a fictional "Death Ray" that they will feed to Nazi Germany in order to pull top-level German scientists to try to finish the Ray before the British do. Unfortunately even though the Ray was considered impossible to build, the Germans managed to complete it anyway, resulting in an entire mountain being blown apart. [[spoiler: This was the writer's plan the whole time. The Ray was impossible because it would always eventually backfire, and when it did, it took out the entire German base, along with dozens of their top scientists, making this more of a subversion of this trope]]

** Shirou was told that Projection magic was useless, so he stopped pursuing it as his primary magic and simply uses it as a warmup before he tries other types of magic. This is roughly equivalent to performing surgery on someone as a warmup to fixing a radio: painful, dangerous, has little to do with what you're gearing up to do, and something that a non-expert should never do. And no one is an expert in Projection because it's seen as incredibly difficult and incredibly useless. ''However'', Shirou doesn't know this, so he basically creates matter from nothing, which is supposed to be an impossible feat even in this universe. At best, most people can only keep their projections around for a few minutes and they're of shoddy quality, but Shirou shows the ability to replicate items that never seem to disappear as well as legendary weapons. ''And he doesn't even realize this is amazing''.

* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner:''

* ''Website/{{Cracked}}:''

** On the subreddit [[https://www.reddit.com/r/ShittyAskScience /r/ShittyAskScience]] a user once asked, [[https://www.reddit.com/r/shittyaskscience/comments/4l53u3/if_the_sun_were_to_instantly_disappear_would_it/ if the sun were to instantly disappear, would it take 8 minutes for the earth to stop orbiting it?]]. However, this ''is'' actually what would happen if the sun were to spontaneously disappear, as the force of gravity travels at the speed of light. The page exploded when they realized that someone asked a question [[BeyondTheImpossible so unreasonably stupid]] it became reasonable.

* ''LetsPlay/DashieGames'': Towards the end of Dashie's playthrough of ''Life Is Strange Episode 2: Out Of Time,'' he gets to the part where [[spoiler: Max tries to convince Kate not to commit suicide]]. The point is, he has no prior knowledge of this. The decisions he chooses is [[spoiler: "Things will get better," "It was in silent mode," "I'm gathering proof," "Be strong," "Your mother," and finally, because Dashie knows someone named Matthew and that it was 11:30 at this point, "Matthew 11:28."]] After all of these decisions due to having no prior knowledge and no walkthrough to guide him as a result, in the end, [[spoiler: Dashie ultimately ends up saving Kate]]. Due to his success in this, ''Life Is Strange'' became one of his requested games and it racked up a lot of likes.

* ''WebVideo/GameGrumps'' and ''WebVideo/SteamTrain:''

---> '''Ross: ''' Wait, woah! T-they all died! Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait! WAIT!!! That counted?! THAT FUCKING COUNTED?!\\

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Q Continuum'' trilogy, the evil omnipotent being is more powerful than Q because he's insane and can ignore/doesn't know the limits of omnipotence. It does help that he (it?) is also from [[WrongContextMagic a universe/dimension/existence that even the Q have no idea exists.]]

** An even more extreme example are the Jokaero. Similar to the Orks, these orangutan-like aliens are capable of creating technology on an instinctual level. ''Unlike'' the Greenskins, though, these aren't piles of junk randomly slapped together and brought to life through sheer willpower. The Jokaero can make some of the most advanced, highly miniaturized technology in the galaxy, utilizing advanced techniques and seemingly natural phenomena that the best minds in the Imperium can't wrap their heads around. And they can do it with pretty much [[MacGyvering any bits of junk that happen to be lying around]]. A Jokaero can sit on a pile of technological scrap and assemble a spacecraft that is more advanced than almost anything any other race can put together. Again, another difference from the Orks is that anyone can use Jokaero tech. In spite of this, there is great debate if Jokaero are even ''sentient'', as they don't appear to have any discernible language or culture, with everything they do motivated only by their will to survive. The evident lack of sentience, their innate technological prowess and the non-exclusivity of their tech means that the Imperium is willing to make them an exception to their KillEmAll policy regarding Xenos, and Jokaero technology is highly sought after by both Rogue Traders and Inquisitors. That said, their creative process appears to be entirely random. Handing a Jokaero a bolt pistol could result in it having enough firepower to vaporize a tank in one shot, or an otherwise normal bolt pistol with some high-tech but ultimately useless flourish, with no way to discern which you are going to get.

* During the final battle of the Wicked Master campaign from [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWo7oRI9oM4CXs387kMb56A T the Writter]]'s ''D&D'' stories, T realized they were losing the battle and his bard character was mostly useless since he had built it for roleplaying and not combat. Then he noticed he had an ability on his character sheet that allowed him to sacrifice spells to give to a boost to a performance check, but he actually misread the rule and thought he could blow all of his spells on one performance check. The game they were playing had a rule that bards could attract the attention of outsiders and gods by rolling a thirty or higher on a performance check and with the misinterpreted rule, he scored over 137 and was able to summon Bahumut, god of dragons, which tipped the battle in heroes favor. The DM had to remove his character from the game by having him AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence to become the god of music.