Human Nature 101

[joh2001smile]

Hi,
I did a google search and found quite a few resulits which were about the basic and timeless elements of human nature. Does the collocation mean the basic elements of human nature? And why the capitalization and 101?
Context:
I saw squad leaders piss off one of their juniors by treating him like a nobody. Doing that isn’t very smart, because the guy can hurt you later--- it’s Human Nature 101.

 

[MarcB]

Human Nature 101does mean it is basic. It comes from a university course description.

 

[olliemae]

"The basic and timeless elements" means that these elements of human nature are both fundamental and unchanging.

Human Nature 101 is styled like the name of a beginning college course. Physics 101, English 101, etc. The author's saying that revenge is an elementary principle of human nature.


Note: Collocation is not a word we use commonly. Try "combination" instead.

 

[Elwintee]

Human Nature 101does mean it is basic. It comes from a university course description.

This is very interesting. I note that the posts are AE. As a BE speaker my first thought was that '101' referred to the torture chamber, room 101, in George Orwell's "1984". University courses are described in many ways in BE, but I'm unfamiliar with the '101 = basic' idea.

 

[olliemae]

Interesting. In US universities, courses are named by department and number. Undergraduate courses range from 101-499, graduate courses 500+. Hence (something)101 is the most basic course you can take in a subject.

 

[Judica]

Interesting. In US universities, courses are named by department and number. Undergraduate courses range from 101-499, graduate courses 500+. Hence (something)101 is the most basic course you can take in a subject.

Yes, and we generally pronounce the freshman level first semester course 101 as "One-O-One" with the letter "O" and not the number zero.

 

[joh2001smile]

Interesting. In US universities, courses are named by department and number. Undergraduate courses range from 101-499, graduate courses 500+. Hence (something)101 is the most basic course you can take in a subject.

olliemae,
Thank you, I know the origin of the 101 now. It really helps.

 

[joh2001smile]

Thanks everybody.

 

[ADCS]

Just so you know, not every college and university in the US uses that designation, but it's so common in the media that everyone pretty much knows what it means.