You must be good to work with. Not knowing everything is normal, but not every team can take that to heart.

I can picture Minnesota to the west of Wisconsin, but I can't pinpoint Minneapolis on the map in my head. (I went to college in the Chicago area.)

Living in Missouri and not knowing where Minnesota is absurd. Did you move there recently?

Not really. The southern midwest and northern midwest are pretty distinct, and the bootheel of Missouri has more in common with Oklahoma than with Iowa.

Lots of Missourians don't make it north of of the Mason-Dixon very often. I'd definitely expect more KC folks to make it to Colorado than to Minnesota. Etc.

Not sure why you'd prime facie expect Missourians to have a better mental model of the upper midwest than Californians. If you don't go to a place, you don't go to a place. Doesn't matter if it's around the world or six hours north.

Have you ever seen any of the comedian Man on the Street interviews? People so don't care about geography any longer than (if that) it takes to get past the subject in whatever school grade forcing it upon them. I've always had a fascination with maps/globes/etc, so I spend a considerable amount of time with that stuff. Even I couldn't place the exact location of cities within states I've never visited. Absurd is not the word I'd use.

I don't think people in the USA ever cared about Geography. Being able to name a couple of cities in every state is useless as is know state capitols other than your own. You could always read up (in a library or internet) about a place if you were going to visit there or looking for a new place to check out on vacation. It really isn't that valuable as far as information goes. I would rather know more about France or Russia as I'm probably more likely to visit there on vacation than I would be to go to Minnesota.

Growing up in Missouri means going to school in Missouri.

I feel seen. Actually burst out laughing.

Edwardsville High was one of the biggest high schools anywhere. Whereas moving to Missouri was like traveling ten years into the past.

It was so painful that I dropped out the moment I landed a programming job.

As a Californian, sometimes I forget if it’s Oregon or Washington state that’s directly north of us.

Well you probably wouldn't have done well on Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader

probably not. But they also probably think that they know more than everyone who lives between the sierra nevada and appalachia mountains

OP identified themselves as "from Missouri".

Last time I checked, Missouri lies almost exactly smack dab at the midpoint between the sierra nevada and the (eastern reaches of the) appalachia mountains.

But that's not even really the important point. The attitude that the Midwest is full of humble salt of the earth types and the coasts are full of arrogant elites is itself... well, astoundingly arrogant. Believe it or not, the midwest has plenty of arrogant folks and many of the nicest and most humble people in the world happen to live on the coasts.

Just think about what you're saying here. How is it any different than the ostensible coastal attitude you are critiquing here? "I value X and people from those other places don't have X." Pot, meet kettle.

In a thread where you're attacking someone for being geographically arrogant (incorrectly, no less!!!), you could at least refrain from being geographically arrogant...

To be quite blunt, I meet WAY more Midwesterners who make asinine and negative assertions about people on "the coast" than coastal folks who have any strong feels at all about the interior. Being a dick about where you live is, increasingly, a distinctly Midwestern thing.

This seems like an oddly negative take. When someone has just acknowledged that they lack knowledge in a particular area, why assume conceit?

because they wrote a whole comment about minneapolis being in indiana

Hah, this is quite ignorant and I really appreciate you were willing to share it! :)

I think every kid should get one of those sets of 50-52 books about the states (plus DC and PR) to pore over.

Minnesota was THE last state people remembered the location of pre-pandemic times.