The encyclopedia of things people get wrong

Everybody knows Napoleon was short, the Great Wall is visible from space, and you swallow eight spiders a year in your sleep. Everybody's wrong. Wilkipedia is a cheerful, fact-checked tour of the misconceptions we all share, the memories we all misremember, and—new for the AI age—the confident nonsense that chatbots make up.

None of this is cynicism for its own sake. It's the simple habit of checking things—whether a claim came from a schoolteacher, a viral post, your own vivid memory, or a chatbot that sounds extremely sure of itself. Sounding true and being true are different properties, and mixing them up is the single most common way otherwise-smart people end up wrong.

🎭 Wilki, not Wiki. We're an independent, tongue-in-cheek myth-busting project—not Wikipedia, not affiliated with any encyclopedia. The facts here are real and checkable; the attitude is our own.

Start here

Common misconceptions
The "facts" everyone knows that aren't.
The Mandela effect
When crowds misremember the same thing.
How false memories form
The real psychology behind misremembering.
AI hallucinations
When chatbots confidently make things up.
Spotting fakes
How to tell true from truthy.
Media literacy
How professional fact-checkers actually check.

Myths by category

Science myths
Brains, blood, evolution and physics.
History myths
What didn't happen the way you think.
Animal myths
Bats, camels, sharks and other slandered creatures.
Food & nutrition myths
Carrots, MSG, turkey and the 5-second rule.
Body & health myths
Vaccines, antibiotics, water and your brain.
Space myths
The Moon, Mars, and the "dark side" that isn't.
Tech & internet myths
Incognito mode, batteries, and viral hoaxes.

Featured wrongness

Myth

The claim: You only use 10% of your brain.

Actually: You use virtually all of it. Brain imaging shows activity across the whole brain, and there's no dormant 90% waiting to unlock psychic powers. The myth is pure Hollywood.

Myth

The claim: Goldfish have a 3-second memory.

Actually: Goldfish can remember things for months and can even be trained. The three-second gag is a slander against a surprisingly capable fish.

Myth

The claim: Napoleon was unusually short.

Actually: He was around average height for his era. The 'short' image mostly comes from British wartime propaganda and a mix-up between French and English measurement units.

Myth

The claim: The Great Wall of China is visible from space with the naked eye.

Actually: It generally isn't — it's long but very narrow, and astronauts report it's extremely hard or impossible to pick out unaided.

See the full collection of misconceptions → · Frequently asked questions