Things that you pretend to be don't know....

I must say, a valiant effort at English grammar! Congratulations! I've read people for whom English is supposedly their "native tongue" do a worse job of it. Sometimes it is a very good thing to pretend to not know everything. Many people hate "know-it-alls," and they don't like it when you are always correcting them, or telling them things they don't understand; it makes them feel like they are stupid. Now, if you are pretending to be "dumb" to cover up for someone's fault of doing something wrong, that is not a good thing. Although, most times, if someone is guilty of wrong-doing, they will trip themselves up and you do not need to do anything to add to their troubles. But it makes life so much easier to get along with people when they don't hate you for knowing "everything." As you said, it's a sort of "survivor's law," just makes surviving a whole lot easier. So, playing "dumb" is not always a bad thing, it can many times be the best thing! Congratulations on learning that being smart doesn't always need to be proven with every word out of your mouth!!