History Main / AchievementsInIgnorance

* ''Film/SpiderManNoWayHome'':

* In the film ''Film/HomeForChristmas'', after finding herself homeless following her divorce, Julie Bedford (Creator/LindaHamilton) basically improvises a career in real estate to give herself a reason to be staying in a “white elephant” house that nobody will buy as the asking price is too expensive, decorating it with furniture loaned from a salesman she has befriended to give the impression that she has somewhere to stay when her daughter comes Andie over for Christmas. When [[spoiler:prospective buyers come by on Christmas Eve as Julie is having dinner with Andie, Julie is briefly anxious that she’s going to be in trouble, but she is instead praised for designing the house to create such a homely atmosphere, which results in the buyers paying the asking price along with whatever it will cost for the furniture to be included, giving Julie a significant boost in her income when she just intended to give Andie a nice Christmas]].
* ''Film/JemAndTheHolograms2015''; the protagonist becomes famous after she takes a video of herself singing which gets uploaded to Website/YouTube by her little sister after Jem herself assumes it's going to bomb, then suddenly goes viral with ''millions'' of hits, ''overnight''. [[CriticalDissonance (Clearly, her music is better in-fiction than out of it.)]]
* 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.
* ''Film/MollysGame'': 'Bad' Brad accidentally bluffs his way into winning a huge hand (his first-ever win at the table) because he is too bad at poker to realize that he should have folded. His reckless betting spooks Harlan into thinking he has a much stronger hand and he folds.
* This is the plot of ''Film/PayItForward'' as described by the mother:
-->"You don't know my son, you tell him he can do something and he's going to believe you."

* In the film ''Robot Overlords'', humans are monitored and basically controlled due to implants that alert the robots now in control of Earth if they are out of their homes for too long. The events of the film begin when a group of teens accidentally shut down their implants after receiving an electric shock while trying to repair a Playstation.

** 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.
** Unspoken, but this is also present with the Green Goblin. Since he's [[Film/SpiderManTrilogy from a world]] where Captain America doesn't exist, recreating the super-soldier formula was not Norman Osborn's intention. Creating an evil split personality notwithstanding, Osborn's performance enhancer is the most successful attempt at copying it, if not better given Goblin's strength feats from the two films, like holding up a gondola with no physical difficulty apparent, go beyond Cap or even other attempts. It also does not give him physical alterations like Hulk or Abomination had. The fact that Peter could only hurt him after he stopped holding back means that at best Hulk and Thor would have been the best likely to outdo him in strength.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** This was probably the original intention behind Han Solo's retort to C-3PO in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'': "NeverTellMeTheOdds!" Han does not want to know how unlikely his various insane flight maneuvers are to work precisely because that might deter him from trying them, and those insane maneuvers were their only chance of escape. Han does not want to know what is impossible, or so unlikely as to be effectively impossible.
** Played with in the same film when Luke tries and fails to use the Force to lift his X-wing out of the swamp. He fails, and then, when Yoda is able to do it, he says that he cannot believe it, only for Yoda to tell him that that was why he failed. He failed, that is, because he did not believe that it was possible, whereas Yoda knew that it was.
** Han continues to use the trope as his standard operating procedure in ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', allowing for him to pull such insane stunts as jumping to hyperspace from inside a hangar. When Rey incredulously asks if that's even possible, Han replies, "I never ask that question 'til after I've done it."

* In ''Film/Tremors2Aftershocks'', the subterranean, wormlike Graboids move into a new biological phase: three-foot tall, bipedal, [[RaptorAttack raptor-like beings]] nicknamed "Shriekers". When the Shriekers disable a car on the road out of town, (blocking the road) and disable communications by taking down the radio tower, the heroes nearly panic at the implications, especially after having previously seen [[ItCanThink how clever the Graboids could be]]. Then they discover that the Shriekers have visions based on seeing heat and are simply attacking anything hot in their way, such as a car engine or a radio tower, and have managed to disable their human opponents purely by chance. As one stunned character says when they find this out "You mean they're acting so smart...because they're so ''[[TooDumbToFool stupid]]''?!"

* The premise of ''Film/ForrestGump'' is built on this trope. Forrest is so dense that he routinely attempts things other people wouldn't even consider, and so single-minded that he puts his maximum effort into everything he does. As a result, he meets spectacular success while the skeptics are left scratching their heads.

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

* Joe Patroni in ''Film/{{Airport}}'' is a skilled mechanic qualified to taxi planes but not fly them. When a 707 is stuck on a snowy runway and has to be moved off at any cost to allow another plane's emergency landing, he takes the cockpit and pushes the aircraft past its limits until he manages to get it moving just ahead of the plows coming to (destructively) give it a push, thereby saving the aircraft. Arguably Patroni is overqualified for this trope, because he knows the plane inside and out and exactly how much abuse it can take. What drives it home is when he's told afterward that the manual says what he just did is impossible—to which he replies the beauty of the 707 is "she can do everything but read." It's an achievement in ignorance for the ''plane''.

** The Thermians construct a fully functional, space-worthy Starship, complete with powerful weapons, WarpDrive, and {{Teleportation}}, based on the design of a ship seen in "Historical Documents" intercepted from space. Unbeknownst to them, [[AliensStealCable these "Historical Documents" were actually episodes]] from [[ShowWithinAShow the TV Series]] ''Galaxy Quest'', broadcast from Earth by humans not remotely capable of producing these technologies. It's important to note that this also included the [[MacGuffin Omega-13]], an alien device that was ''not'' part of the original ship schematics and that ''nobody even knew what function it had'', only educated (and conflicting) guesses.

* ''LetsPlay/AchievementHunterMinecraftSeries'': In episode 159, the crew is playing with a mod that adds 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.

* ''[[LetsPlay/LifeSMP Double Life SMP]]'': On Day 4, Martyn and Joel end up accidentally killing the "Ranchers' Revenge" [[BossInMooksClothing Warden]] with fall damage while playing around with [[RodAndReelRepurposed fishing rods]].[[note]]It had already lost most of its health in the previous episode from drowning when Tango brought it up to the surface.[[/note]]

* In the film ''Home for Christmas'', after finding herself homeless following her divorce, Julie Bedford (Creator/LindaHamilton) basically improvises a career in real estate to give herself a reason to be staying in a “white elephant” house that nobody will buy as the asking price is too expensive, decorating it with furniture loaned from a salesman she has befriended to give the impression that she has somewhere to stay when her daughter comes Andie over for Christmas. When [[spoiler:prospective buyers come by on Christmas Eve as Julie is having dinner with Andie, Julie is briefly anxious that she’s going to be in trouble, but she is instead praised for designing the house to create such a homely atmosphere, which results in the buyers paying the asking price along with whatever it will cost for the furniture to be included, giving Julie a significant boost in her income when she just intended to give Andie a nice Christmas]].

* In ''Pippi on the Run'', the final Literature/PippiLongstocking movie with Inger Nilsson as the eponymous character, this trope becomes a RunningGag. Over the course of the movie, Pippi does several completely impossible things, and then afterward claims that the reason why she could do them was that she forgot they were impossible. The entire thing is {{subverted|Trope}} at the very end of the movie when Pippi rides a broomstick around Tommy and Annika's house, and when Annika once again claims that this is impossible, Pippi cheerfully yells back that it's not impossible to ''her.''"

#TooDumbToFool - a fool immediately sees through a lie or other treachery

* In one the ''Raising Corpse'' skits, a young [[Creator/CorpseHusband Corpse]] summons his {{Fratbro}} [[IntergenerationalFriendship friend]] Kyler by chanting Kyler's CatchPhrase three times. Kyler apparently didn't know this was possible, as he is confused when he gets teleported to where Corpse and his mother were.

Despite this, somehow there's someone [[BeyondTheImpossible who can do things thought impossible]], simply because they do not realize that they should be incapable of the achievement. Any of the characters might occasionally be AndYouThoughtItWasAGame, but it can be a recurring trait for a GeniusDitz or a BunglingInventor. This trope focuses on the times the character in question achieved what they did largely ''because'' they had absolutely no idea that it was supposed to be impossible.

* Everybody who has learned to play TablteopGame/{{Chess}} has probably encountered this from both directions. Especially when grade schoolers are involved.

* 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.

[[folder:Literature]]
* In German, an achievement made in ignorance of the inherent dangers is frequently called a "Ritt über den Bodensee" (a ride across Lake Constance). This is based on a folk legend that was turned into a ballad by Gustav Schwab, ''Der Reiter und der Bodensee'' (The Rider and Lake Constance): In a cold winter, a rider loses his way in a snowstorm and without realizing it rides across the frozen-over Lake Constance. This is something a sane person would normally not attempt because due to the size of the lake[[note]]Germany's largest, with a surface area of 536 square km[[/note]] and the Rhine running through it you could not be sure that it would be safe for a rider and horse to cross all the way. It does not end well though -- when he is told that he has arrived in a village on the other shore, [[GoMadFromTheRevelation the shock of realization of the danger he unwittingly had gone through kills him]].
* ''Literature/AlcatrazSeries'':
** Smedry Talents often have a subtext of this. Generally, the Smedrys can turn being very bad at one thing (for example, dancing), into being really good at something else (like fighting). Aydee Ecks Smedry's power in particular is being extraordinarily bad at math, so that she can, for example, believe that if you have one each of the three kinds of exploding teddy bear (ItMakesSenseInContext), then that's six teddy bears total, making 3 extra appear.
** 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/{{Baccano}}'' has [[TheDitz Isaac and Miria]] presented with needing to keep people out of a museum for a while. After concluding they can't steal the entire building, they decide that, if they steal the door, nobody can get in. So they steal the door. Which causes the police to shut down the museum to investigate the stolen door, meaning ''this actually worked''.
* ''Literature/TheBelgariad'':
** This is played seriously when Garion tries to [[spoiler:resurrect the dead colt]] and succeeds, something Belgarath (the first and at that point, most powerful human sorcerer) can't do. In this case, it's primarily used to show just how much sorcery depends on the sorcerer believing a feat is possible. Sorcery is pretty much defined by how people think, meaning that each sorcerer can do things that other sorcerers find extremely difficult, because of the way they think - this is just the logical extreme. However, it's implied that the Light Prophecy gave him a bit of help, and serves as {{Foreshadowing}} of how ridiculously powerful Garion really is. In particular, the adolescent Garion sees things as simpler than they actually are, which lets him do things that his learned elders think are too complex to be done. Belgarath notes at one point that this also puts Garion at risk, as this sometimes results in Garion attempting things that more experienced sorcerers would know are too dangerous to try. This is also {{Foreshadowing}}, as [[spoiler:Errand, a complete innocent, convinces the gods to bring Durnik back to life in the last book largely by not comprehending he's dead...[[AmnesiacGod largely]]]].
** Later, Garion does it ''again'', creating "Adara's Rose" for his cousin Adara to make her feel better. It mostly just appears to be a slightly lopsided flower with a pleasant scent. In the sequel series, it turns out to be the panacea, the cure for all ills, with its very smell capable of curing an otherwise incurable poison. The revelation that Garion created it offhand (he mostly just seems a little embarrassed at how wimpy the flowers are) leaves [[{{Seers}} Cyradis]] dumbstruck for the one and only time in the series.
** Also subverted in the fifth book, ''Enchanter's Endgame'', by Queen Islena of Cherek when ruling in her husband's stead. Following suggestions of a fellow queen, she orders a priest trying to usurp power to go to the front lines or be sent to the dungeons. Such an ultimatum would be completely unacceptable behavior for the monarch, except Islena isn't well known for her intellect and is assumed to be ignorant of her apparent ''faux pas''. Unable to counter the queen's order, his take-over not yet ready, and with no actual legal grounds to protest, the priest is sent to war. And once the priest is there with the rest of the army, he really can't come up with a compelling reason why he should be sent home again. Especially since members of his radical sect claim to be fearsome warriors who aren't afraid of battle. Her husband King Anheg later admits that he could never have done this because he ''is'' expected to know better.
** Also, in ''Polgara the Sorceress'', Polgara comments on Belgarath's ability to continue at any given task unrelentingly, and supposes he may be able to "store up sleep" during his long periods of rest, something that as the team medic, she knows/believes to be impossible. Just afterward, she decides it might be interesting to test the capacity of a human to do what seems impossible - when one doesn't know it--by convincing [[KnightInShiningArmor Mandorallen]] to pick himself up by the scruff of his neck.
* In Mickey Zucker Reichert's ''Literature/BifrostGuardians'' series, there is a magical fortress that is so well protected by various traps that, as everyone knows, it is impossible to break into. When the main characters need to do just that, one of them leaps to the challenge, saying that he's been doing "impossible" things all his life and he's not about to stop now. As it turns out, the magic protecting the fortress [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve gets stronger the more you believe in its effectiveness]]--all you have to do to get in is to believe that you really can do the impossible.
* The main character of ''Literature/BofuriIDontWantToGetHurtSoIllMaxOutMyDefense'', a VRMMORPG novel, hasn't played any game before. So she started putting ''all'' the skill points of her character in defense. But she acquired very rare and powerful abilities that make use of her defense, like gaining additional resistance or outright nullifying all the damage she receives.
* In ''Literature/TheCatWhoWalksThroughWalls'', the titular cat Pixel does exactly that because he's too young to know it's impossible.
* ''Literature/CircleOfMagic'':
** The books run on this trope, particularly the four main characters weaving their powers together in the first book. Lampshaded when Niko informs Tris that the magic-seeing spell should have worn off a week after it was placed.
--->'''Niko:''' There's an advantage to instructing young mages: suggestion counts for so much with you four.
** At the same time, though, it is noted by various characters that magic (much like science in the real world) has many things still unknown about it. You just don't realize this is so until the so-called impossible happens. This is multiplied by the fact the main characters have natural ambient magic, which comes from an affinity to various crafts or elements, whose rules are more or less adherent as to the individual subject matter, as opposed to the learned university magic which is highly structured by it's schooled rules.
* Creator/JimButcher's ''Literature/CodexAlera'':
** The city folk say that the people on the frontier have such strong magic because they don't know that they shouldn't. More precisely, the frontier-dwellers tend to have "Furies" that are strong, but partially-independent and hard to control; the inhabitants of the central provinces have much better control, most at the cost of raw power ([[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking the nobility]] are the major exception). Achievements in Ignorance is theorized as the reason for this, but it's never definite; it could also be that wild untamed furies on the frontier are naturally stronger, or living on the frontier hones people's skills in ways that soft city life does not.
** It's also specifically stated that doubt and uncertainty and frustration can inhibit furycrafting. At one point, a character across the ocean from Alera has a minor panic attack on suddenly remembering that theorists have asserted that furycraft is impossible on foreign shores, only to be reassured that another character has just accomplished several feats of furycraft (partly due to being too hard-pressed to remember it was theoretically impossible), and gets ordered to forget the theory.
* In Creator/MarkTwain's ''Literature/AConnecticutYankeeInKingArthursCourt'', there is this:
-->"The best swordsman in the world doesn't need to fear the second best swordsman in the world; no, the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has never had a sword in his hand before; he doesn't do the thing he ought to do, and so the expert isn't prepared for him; he does the thing he ought not to do; and often it catches the expert out and ends him on the spot."
* Creator/DavidLangford's "Different Kinds of Darkness" is about a group of school children who find a [[BrownNote BLIT image on paper]] and make an endurance game out of staring at it. Later, an actual terrorist strike using a stronger BLIT is stopped when one of the children is able to withstand the BLIT long enough to tear it down and throw it in the trash. The school staff realize that misusing the weaker one had given them a ''tolerance'' for BLIT images, something that hadn't been considered possible.
* Done in ''{{Literature/Dinoverse}}'' with the help of a SentientCosmicForce. Bertram builds a machine for the ScienceFair which has a simple function--play different randomized videos on screens while hooked up to suction cups on someone's head--but he wants people to think it's showing their dreams, so he builds something massive out of junk salvaged from tech shops. Somehow it turns into a TimeMachine. Later it's shown that throughout the multiverse people have been building devices that do the same thing, and Betram must repair a broken one without tools while in the body of a Dilophosaur.
* This was a theme of Creator/DouglasAdams' 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.
** For that matter, it's exemplified by the line from ''Literature/LifeTheUniverseAndEverything'', "There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' likes this one:
** Tiffany Aching reading the dictionary cover to cover because nobody ever told her she shouldn't and Susan Sto-Helit successfully teaching seven-year-olds algebra and, when told it's too hard for them, replies that so far they haven't figured that out. It needs to be said that examples of children learning something before adults would think they're ready to learn it are probably TruthInTelevision. A bright child may be reading books meant for adults by the age of eight or ten, though they probably won't understand [[ParentalBonus everything they read]].
** Bergholt Stuttley "Bloody Stupid" Johnson is such an [[BunglingInventor incompetent architect and inventor]] that he ends up creating buildings that are BiggerOnTheInside, and circles with the value of pi equal to exactly 3. Three of the national projects that he undertook can fit in a normal pocket. [[https://wiki.lspace.org/Bergholt_Stuttley_Johnson The full list is here.]]
** In ''Literature/EqualRites'', Esk teleports something without a counterweight and was able to do it because she didn't know it was impossible because she hadn't been formally taught. It does, however, have [[EldritchAbomination consequences]] later. As well as a possible explanation being given: any wizard could do that, but doing so greatly increases the chances of [[{{Telefrag}} something going very, very wrong in transit]], leading to wizards who know better never trying it.
** Discussed in ''Literature/TheLastHero'', when Leonard asks for journeymen craftsmen, rather than masters, because he has no use for "people who have learned the limits of the possible".
** [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Death]] gives this explanation for how he can move through walls and otherwise tell [[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick the laws of physics to sit down and shut the hell up]]. His advice to Mort in his stint as his apprentice is not to think about it too hard and forget that you know that you can't move through walls. Mort is able to do this when [[CentipedesDilemma he isn't actively thinking about it]] as he escapes a group of thugs by backing through a wall. Later books implied that this is because of Death's nature as being outside time - even if the wall is there ''now'', there was or will be a time when the wall will not be or wasn't there, so Death instinctively travels through the space the wall occupies at a moment when there wasn't a wall, then reverts to the moment he needed to be in. When time gets imprisoned in ''Literature/ThiefOfTime'', both he and Susan temporarily lose the ability to do this, as the world is frozen in a moment and there is no past or future to travel through.
** Susan also uses this trope when she travels back through time to ask Death a few questions about her job. The Raven uses this trope as an example of why education is actually a bad thing.
** An interesting example is Lord Rust, Ankh-Morpork's foremost military leader by dint of heritage; the man is a total incompetent with absolutely no tactical ability or military knowledge whatever and does not seem to comprehend the utter futility of attacking a vastly superior force on their home ground with virtually no provisions. While this has the obvious result of killing almost every man under his command, Rust is completely unharmed, even though he leads every suicidal charge from the front. By all laws of probability, he should be dead long ago. However, Rust has the unusual ability of being able to completely and subconsciously ignore anything that contradicts or is outside his extraordinarily unrealistic worldview, assuming that it simply cannot exist, including physical danger. He has been reported as charging directly at enemy lines surrounded by projectiles without being scratched; arrows have apparently changed direction to avoid him (which then hit his men). On the Discworld, sufficiently powerful belief can alter physical reality, and magic has been described as more or less ignoring the laws of physics.
** Hodgesaaargh finds the newly-hatched phoenix because nobody told him that nobody had ever found one. A slight subversion in that the other characters think that it is this trope, whereas Hodgesaaargh also succeeds because he thinks of the phoenix first as a bird, then as a magical creature while everyone else thinks of it the other way round.
** Cohen and his Silver Horde slaughter the Agatean ninjas because nobody told them that ninjas were invincible. They have a history of doing stuff like this. As Barbarian Heroes, they regularly [[BeyondTheImpossible do impossible things]], [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu kill impossible things]], [[NoOneCouldHaveSurvivedThat survive impossible things]], and, in general, are impossible. There is a reason they have all lived to be [[OldRetainer very, very, very old]] and still haven't retired. In fact, that last one counts as the biggest impossibility they regularly pull off: even after they died, they didn't think they were dead and went on like it didn't happen.
** In ''Literature/{{Sourcery}}'', the Genie uses this to [[RecursiveReality travel through the sky in the lamp while Nijel is also holding it]]. The trick is not to draw too much attention to it (by thinking or talking about it) so that physics doesn't catch up with its impossibility.
** In ''Literature/GoingPostal'', at the end of the initiation trial that the old postmen run for Moist, they [[spoiler:sic several massive dogs upon him, whom he recognizes from their bark as Lipwigzer dogs--which his grandfather raised]]. He handles the challenge with perfect confidence by [[spoiler:using the commands that all purebred Lipwigzers are trained]]... only to learn afterward that [[spoiler:they were not Lipwigzers at all, but Ankh-Morpork junkyard dogs, with no Lipwig training whatsoever. Since he thought he was safe, they couldn't smell fear on him.]]
** ''Literature/RaisingSteam'' has the steam train "Iron Girder" essentially ''fly'' across a rickety bridge, supported only by mist and fog, because Moist convinces Simnel that it can ([[spoiler:which turns out to be a subversion, because Moist has secretly made a temporary living ... or whatever ... bridge out of the Ankh-Morpork golems that the mist and fog prevent anyone from seeing]]).
** ''Literature/TheLightFantastic'': [[ExaggeratedTrope Exaggerated]] with the Druids' method of assembling [[CircleOfStandingStones stone circles]]: convincing the 50-tonne megaliths that they can fly and then riding them to the construction site before they can remember that they are, in fact, giant hunks of rock.
* Discussed and invoked in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''. While setting up a BatmanGambit, Harry compares himself several times to Wile E. Coyote. When things start exploding in his face, he thinks to himself that Wile E.'s big mistake is looking down. If he kept running, he'd make it to the other side of the canyon. While Harry isn't technically ignorant of the dangers around him, he decides to keep going anyway.
* In ''Literature/DykstrasWar'', the titular supergenius develops an entirely new branch of physics, and his basic theorems are only successfully challenged and updated by one person. He had seen some data indicating that [[spoiler:under certain conditions, there was no theoretical barrier to accelerating to [[FasterThanLightTravel faster-than-light speeds]]]], but Dykstra dismissed that because that simply made no sense and the laws of physics wouldn't allow for it, and the discovery was left to an autistic savant who didn't filter his data like that. [[spoiler:It turns out that FTL is indeed possible]].
* In ''Literature/EarthsChildren'' novel ''The Clan of the Cave Bear'', the narration states almost verbatim that Ayla could only come up with her two-stone trick because no one told her it was impossible to rapid-fire two stones from a sling.
* The entire premise behind the victory over the Buggers in ''Literature/EndersGame''. [[spoiler:Ender was lead to believe that the entire war he fought was just a simulation meant to train him for the actual war. This was done to push him past the MoralEventHorizon and force him to use tactics that would otherwise be unthinkable against a real opponent: total xenocide. Once it's revealed what he did, he broke down into hysteria, stating he never would have done it if he knew it was real]].
* ''Literature/{{Everfound}}'' gives us an odd variation combined with RealityWarper. The ruler of the City of Souls is sometimes known as "The Unremembering King" due to his ability to "unremember things". How this works is if the king says he does not remember something, then it ceases to exist. For example, he doesn't remember that Afterlights with red hair aren't parrots, so they sprout red parrot wings. He doesn't remember ''not'' being a powerful Mayan king, so he becomes one. [[spoiler:As he fell toward the center of the earth, he tried to save himself by not remembering there ever being a direction such as "down"--so he was teleported instantly to the only place where there is, in effect, no "down"--the center of the earth.]]
* Played with in the third book of ''Literature/EwilansQuest'', to explain how Matthieu/Akiro could teleport somewhere he had never been, which no one seems to have achieved before and was thus believed to be impossible.
* Humans in the ''Literature/ExpeditionaryForce'' series are at the very bottom of the technological totem pole and are absolutely helpless against the full might of the hostile species inhabiting the galaxy. Despite that, there are two reasons why they still have a distinct advantage over everyone else: 1.) All technology in the galaxy is based on how each species ''think'' reversed-engineered Precursor technology is supposed to work while the main character has befriended a Precursor A.I. who is the only one in the galaxy who knows how Precursor technology is ''actually'' supposed to work and 2.) Human scientific and technological knowledge is so laughably ignorant in the grand scheme of things that the main character keeps pointing out workable solutions and coming up with plans that succeed because he doesn't have the knowledge to "know" that such feats were supposed to be impossible. The flabbergasted and begrudging A.I. even comments that this trope must be humanity's hat.
* In the book ''Fallen Angels'', 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/GloryRoad'' Oscar Gordon, knowing nothing of hypergeometry, somehow manages to feed Igli to himself, thereby killing the unkillable construct.
* The Blieder Drive of Creator/EricFrankRussell's ''The Great Explosion'' was invented in this manner. Blieder was trying to invent a magic trick, but he had no idea what he was doing and ended up launching a penny through the roof of his house at what later turned out to be many times the speed of light.
* In ''Literature/TheGreatTrainRobbery'', the last part of Edward Pierce's plan to get to the gold requires him to climb along the top of a speeding train, and the revelation that he successfully did so causes an uproar in the courtroom. Although he spouts some poorly understood science about a slipstream preventing him from falling off, actual experts dismiss this as nonsense and decide that the only way he got away with it is because he had no idea it should have killed him.
* 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 inadvertently built a radio that picks up '''''Radio Moscow'''''.
* ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'':
** Used seriously with the Valdemarans, who not only are able to come up with magical solutions no one has tried before because they aren't familiar with the cultures and traditions surrounding magic, but are also able to [[SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic analyze it according to logical rules]] because no one has told them that magic doesn't ''follow'' rules, leading to one of the Hawkbrothers' bewildered muttering [[ThisCannotBe "But magic doesn't work that way!"]]
** Said Hawkbrother eventually buckles in and starts learning MagicAIsMagicA, though he struggles with it. Going from perceiving himself as a master artist with magic to a bridgebuilder with math and calculations isn't easy for him.
* Issei routinely attempts to pull stunts like this in ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDxd'', with varying degrees of success. A shining example comes in his first showdown with [[TheRival Vali]], where [[spoiler:he grabs a fragment of Vali's Divine Diving armor and declares he'll incorporate it into his Boosted Gear armor so he'll have a hand that can punch Vali without activating his magic. Albion points out the two are equal and opposite and the idea is patently ridiculous, to which Ddraig lampshades this trope, and Issei proceeds to do it anyway]].
* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxyTrilogy'':
** The key to flying is "throwing yourself at the ground and missing": being interrupted mid-fall and forgetting to hit and then--and this is ''vital''--not thinking very hard about how you should be falling. Otherwise [[GravityIsAHarshMistress gravity will glance sharply in your direction]] and demand to know what the hell you think you're doing.
** 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 Holy Grail 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.
* ''Literature/HonorHarrington'':
** The Graysons had to work out on their own how to use most Manticoran technology. They ended up making some revolutionary discoveries from this since part of the process included doing things no one already knowledgeable about the technology would have thought to try.
** Honor herself remarks in ''The Honor of the Queen'' that the world's greatest swordsman doesn't fear the second greatest, but rather the ''worst'' swordsman because he has no idea what the idiot will do.
** 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 power plants, so effective that the Manticoran navy adopted them for their small combat ships/"fighters".
* [[spoiler:Foxface]]'s death in ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' occurs thanks to this. One of the more clever tributes, she survives the Games by stealth and caution, stealing food from the other tributes in small amounts that they're not likely to notice. This backfires on her when she steals berries collected by Peeta, who isn't wilderness-savvy enough to realize that they're extremely poisonous. Katniss notes after the fact that a deliberate trap would have never worked, but [[spoiler:Foxface]] had no reason to think twice about eating something that another tribute had collected for his own consumption.
* In the Nick Polotta book ''Literature/IllegalAliens'', humans are told of a (non-existent) material on their ships called "deflector plating" that is immune to all weapon fire. While the aliens are busy snickering behind their hands at the gullible humans, we go and invent deflector plating.
* In the ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'', there exists a little girl named Elva with perfect precognitive abilities[[note]]so long as the thing she's predicting involves pain, anyway[[/note]] and the power to know exactly the right words to completely destroy someone, or to build them back up, without using magic at all. Multiple characters comment that she could probably defeat the main antagonist single-handedly. [[spoiler:Sure enough, when they get to him, he uses magic to prevent her from speaking, and then admits to being more frightened of her than any other living being.]] How did she come into existence? Because of Eragon's [[LanguageOfMagic bad grammar]]. He was trying to bless her as a baby, and intended to say '...And may you be shielded from misfortune', but used the wrong tense of 'shield' and instead cast a spell with the wording 'may you be ''a shield'' from misfortune'. This gave her the ability to predict misfortune, and how to prevent or - once Eragon removed her compulsion to do the latter - cause it.
* ''Literature/JoesWorld'' gives us Wolfgang Laebmauntsforscynneweëld and his twin powers of lunacy and amnesia. He's, for instance, crazy enough to cover several weeks' walk by foot in mere days.
* At the end of ''Quarterdeck'', {{Literature/Kydd}} earns his place in high society by inviting [[HistoricalDomainCharacter Thérèse Bernardine-Mongenet]] to a banquet hosted by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Edward,_Duke_of_Kent_and_Strathearn Prince Edward]]. What Kydd doesn't (and the rest of Canada does) know is that his lady is the Prince's mistress, who isn't allowed to be with him at occasions such as the banquet.
* In ''Literature/TheLicaniusTrilogy'', Davian's initial journey is full of unbelievably lucky coincidences. That's because he managed to the full suite of his Augur powers without knowing that they even exist.
* Played with in ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom''. Catarina ''is'' consciously trying to prevent her future death or exile. But by accident, she does things that work a little ''too'' well. Without even meaning to, she ends up winning the hearts of all of the game's love interests, the other rival characters, and even the main heroine herself, while completely oblivious to this.
* 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' 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.
* ''Literature/PeterPanInKensingtonGardens'' (originally part of ''Literature/TheLittleWhiteBird'') is somewhere between this and ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve. As you should know, [[DeliveryStork babies used to be birds]]. Franchise/PeterPan, at one week old, flies away from his home because he doesn't yet realize that little boys can't fly. Upon reaching Kensington Gardens he first begins to doubt whether he will be able to fly again, at which point he loses the ability. He does later get it back with the help of the fairies, though.
* In Norton Juster's ''Literature/ThePhantomTollbooth'', Milo is told, in the end, that TheQuest he accomplished was, in fact, impossible. This is, in fact, the [[AnAesop Aesop]] of ''The Phantom Tollbooth'': anything is possible, provided you don't ''know'' it's impossible.
* Invoked in ''Literature/RebuildWorld''. Alpha doesn't actually expect a whole lot from Akira. As a random slum kid with no outstanding talents aside from his ability to interact with her, he normally wouldn't make it far at all without her help. But she doesn't tell him this, as planting that expectation in his mind would only drag him down. By letting him believe what she thought was impossible for him is possible, she thinks he may be able to prove her expectations wrong.
* In ''Literature/RiddleOfTheSevenRealms'', the protagonists fly suspended beneath a balloon made out of lead. Astron, a demon to whom the human world's physics is new and fascinating, had simply improvised a substitute when the conveyance's original balloon was punctured by arrows, unaware that a "lead balloon" was considered preposterous by humans.
* In ''Literature/RogueSorcerer'', Aiden manages to kill six master Sorcerers as well as [[spoiler:unintentionally put a death curse on every other Sorcerer in existence]] in a gambit which he had been certain would end in his failure and death.
* In ''Literature/TheSaint'' short story "The Newdick Helicopter", a ConMan sells a mark plans for a "helicopter" (actually a gyrocopter). When the mark assembles the helicopter, he discovers it cannot take off vertically as he expected it to. Assuming he had put it together wrong, he starts tinkering with it and ends up inventing a fully-functioning helicopter. (Note that this story was published in 1933, several years before the first fully-functioning helicopter was built.)
* In Creator/DavidWeber and Steven White's ''Literature/{{Starfire}}'' series, the war with the Bugs results in this happening when the newest members of the Grand Alliance, just getting introduced to the more advanced tech now available to them, innocently ask why the man-portable kinetic weapons that fire projectiles at 10% light speed, carried by infantry and ground vehicles for a century and a half, haven't been adapted to allow for bombardment from orbit, giving the equivalent of tactical nuclear strikes without the radiation and fallout. Alliance military researchers promptly smack themselves on the forehead and begin producing the weapon system from off-the-shelf equipment.
* 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]].
* In ''Literature/SupposeAKidFromTheLastDungeonBooniesMovedToAStarterTown'', Lloyd continuously achieves this due to his lack of reference for what people outside his hometown can do.
** There is a magical rune that can remove curses. Marie took years learning how to do it. Lloyd uses it as a cleaning aid.
** He swats away the "pests" he finds - said "pests" being actually powerful monsters that the locals have trouble fighting off.
** He accidentally prevents a war by clearing a landslide and using his magic to make it rain.
* In ''Literature/SwordArtOnlineAlternativeGunGaleOnline'', LLENN simply wanted to have a cute avatar in a VR FPS shooter, so she decided to have [[PinkIsFeminine a pink outfit]]. Without realizing it, she chose the perfect camouflage for the desert at sunset or sunrise. This causes her to own the desert parts of the map, as no one else thought to use this as a color.
* Pretty much ''everything'' Richard does with his magic in ''Literature/TheSwordOfTruth''. He routinely pulls off stunts that much older, learned, and experienced wizards and sorceresses believe are impossible. And in fact, Richard ''himself'' struggles with even the most basic of magic when he actively thinks about using his power. It turns out that Richard is a particular type of wizard called a War Wizard, who utilize their power purely on instinct and intuition rather than formal study. That's right, it's an entire ''school'' of wizardry that runs on this trope.
* "A Tall Tail" by Creator/CharlesStross tells the story of how American intelligence officials and engineers dreamed up the most ridiculously dangerous and impossible rocket system imaginable[[note]]it ran on [[MadeOfExplodium dioxygen difluoride]] and [[PerfectPoison dimethylmercury]][[/note]] and fed it to foreign agents (minus the "top secret component" that wasn't carefully leaked) in the hopes they'd actually try and build it, resulting in disastrous accidents that would affect their rocket/missile programs. The Soviets make it work... [[StuffBlowingUp Briefly.]]
* ''Literature/TheTamuli'' has a ''god'' do this: the explanation given for why the trollish method of invisibility (involving hacking up time into smaller fragments) allows you to see and hear doesn't make sense. This is realized (or noted, for people who had already heard it before) by most people discussing it, but the troll god responsible doesn't, so it still works.
* In ''Literature/{{Uprooted}}'', Agnieszka's accomplishments pretty much run on this. She uses a healing spell that her teacher has written off as useless, goes for whatever incantation and rhythm feels right rather than the carefully studied formulae that he follows, and rescues her best friend from the malevolent Wood because she didn't know completely what it would entail. Her active suggestions also rely on this, like using an incredibly dangerous text to cleanse her friend of TheCorruption. (That said, she does also practice and study, just from books written by other intuitive mages like her.) Her teacher eventually gives up shouting HowUnscientific at her.
* Lightsong from ''Literature/{{Warbreaker}}'' is the grand master of an extremely complicated game he doesn't actually know the rules of. At one point someone remarks on how innovative his tactics are and how they would never have thought to use that ball for that throw; Lightsong does not mention that he [[IndyPloy picked it because it was the same color as his drink and threw it onto the field completely at random]].
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'':
** 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 onto and consequently taking their knowledge with them.
** In [[DreamLand tel'aran'rhiod]], Perrin blocks a beam of the supposedly [[NoSavingThrow irresistible force]] of balefire with the palm of his hand as if it were nothing, leaving Egwene aghast, telling him what he's just done should be impossible. Perrin, who didn't even know what balefire was a moment before, merely shrugs. It's likely that if she'd tried to do the same thing, it ''would'' have been impossible because YourMindMakesItReal and she's used to dealing with balefire in the waking world where it really ''is'' impossible to withstand. In DreamLand, though, it's no different than anything else and can be made or unmade on a whim... as long as you believe it can.
* ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' makes this an actual magical power. Princess Ida's power of "idea" makes [[RealityWarper any idea suggested to her come true]] if it's thought up by someone who's not aware that this is her power. Several plot points are solved by Ida or someone else who knows how her power works purposefully leading an unwitting third party into coming up with a possible solution, which Ida's power can then make real. Ida herself did not know about her talent for quite some time, with the result that every idea she had coming true until she learned the nature of her power. Even the fact that Ida is a long-lost princess (and an identical twin to the previously-established Princess Ivy) was suggested by someone who [[GenreSavvy simply thought that it was the sort of thing that usually happens in these stories]], thus possibly making the whole thing something that [[TimeyWimeyBall her powers retconned into being]].
** 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 subconsciously 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]]
* This is the explanation given for why younger wizards in Creator/DianeDuane's ''Literature/YoungWizards'' series have more power than older, more experienced wizards -- they don't know or necessarily ''care'' about what qualifies as 'impossible'. Lack of experience also makes them less predictable, and empowering wizards is part of a very long metagame. (Younger wizards are given access to more power with less oversight because they're likely to do more surprising things with it and enough of those surprises benefit reality to be worth the gamble. This is not all good -- from the flip perspective younger wizards lack the experience to do all the necessary day-to-day maintenance work of wizardry and thus are typically empowered to make far worse mistakes and attract greater hostile attention -- which not infrequently results in their deaths.)
* In ''Literature/TheZashikiWarashiOfIntellectualVillage'' Shinobu as a child would happily invite any youkai he met to come play with him. Majina notes that in doing so Shinobu is effectively "defusing" several dangerous youkai such as a God of Poverty, an act Hyakki Yakou struggles to replicate even once.
[[/folder]]

* ''Series/AntFarm '': Paisley,sometimes to RealityWarper levels. She's made a helicopter out of balloons that worked and did a full body gift wrapping of herself!

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/MyImmortal'': At one point Draco Malfoy walks out of the flying car while it is still in the air. He is perfectly fine afterwards.
[[/folder]]

* ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'' has [[TheDitz Isaac and Miria]] presented with needing to keep people out of a museum for a while. After concluding they can't steal the entire building, they decide that, if they steal the door, nobody can get in. So they steal the door. Which causes the police to shut down the museum to investigate the stolen door, meaning ''this actually worked''.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': According to Pyrrha, the friendships she has made in Beacon are this for Jaune. He approached her knowing nothing of her FamedInStory status and combat prowess, completely sidestepping one of the main reasons of her LonelyAtTheTop woes. In turn, her interactions with the ButtMonkey made Pyrrha look more approachable to other people, which helped to partially subvert her AttractivenessIsolation.