Looks at the state of knowledge in the American public, and demonstrates how many areas of knowledge correlate with quality of life, politics, and behavior, arguing that being knowledgeable has significant value even when facts can be looked up with little effort.

Introduction: Facts are obsolete -- Part One: The Dunning-Kruger effect -- 1. "I wore the juice" -- 2. A map of ignorance -- 3. Dumb history -- 4. The one-in-five rule -- 5. The low-information electorate -- Part Two: The knowledge premium -- 6. Putting a price tag on facts -- 7. Elevator-pitch science -- 8. Grammar police, grammar hippies -- 9. Nanoframe -- 10. Is shrimp kosher? -- 11. Philosophers and reality stars -- 12. Sex and absurdity -- 13. Moving the goalposts -- 14. Marshmallow test -- 15. The value of superficial learning -- Part Three: Strategies for a culturally illiterate world -- 16. When dumbing down is smart -- 17. Curating knowledge -- 18. The ice-cap riddle -- 19. The fox and the hedgehog.