How Do You Stay Upbeat Amidst the Idiocy?

Techdirt has a wonderful summary of how hard it is sometimes to stay upbeat when faced with some of the complete idiocy that intelligent, tech-savvy readers often have to deal with in their day-to-day lives. While the frustration will probably never go away, nor will the news calling attention to it, it does seem that opening people's eyes to problems helps things move in the right direction, so keep it up. "Yes, we're in the midst of a brutal financial mess — but that won't stop innovation. Yes, incumbent forces, with short-sighted plans and a desire to hold back the tides are annoying and disruptive (not in a good way) in the short run. But even they are finding they can't hold back progress. Robert Friedel has a wonderful book called A Culture of Improvement that details how we, as a society, are constantly looking to improve on what we already have. We add ideas and ingenuity to old concepts and build something better — not because of the desire to grab some "intellectual property," but because of the desire to improve our own lot, to build a better tool that we want to use. Incumbent short-sighted players have been able to hinder and harm progress, but they can't keep it down completely. That culture of improvement can't be stopped entirely."

Comments

Hmm

[Highrollr]

I remember in online games, if everyone else looks like they're lagged, it's really you that has the problem. Perhaps, when everyone else looks like an idiot... well, you know.

Re:Hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember in online games, if everyone else looks like they're lagged, it's really you that has the problem. Perhaps, when everyone else looks like an idiot... well, you know.

There's more wisdom in what you say than the original poster will understand.

One of the best and most lasting ways of becoming happy is to surround oneself with people that makes you feel happy. If the people around you do not make you happy, it's not their fault. You're responsible for your own happiness. You choose them. Choose people that makes you feel happy.

Re:Hmm

[gEvil (beta)]

And so you come to Slashdot?

That's what I love about Slashdot--everyone here is smarter than me!

Re:Hmm

[jellomizer]

People have a tendency to classify people into group vs. realizing each person is human and has their personality and strengths and weaknesses. If you decide to group a person as an idiot you tend to make the mistake of classifying a person and categorize all his ideas even once within his strengths as useless.
Different situations strike people on different level. Usually the "Idiot"s happens when you strike them at an emotional level. As with most people there are some things that people feel strongly about when you start to contradict the things the feel strongly about their reaction is to defend it, no rational will get them to change their mind. Also as the parent stated sometimes a bunch of people seem like an idiot just because you are the one who is wrong. The human mind naturally fills gaps (predicts the near future, Fills in patterns, etc...) for the most part it works well but sometimes we fill it in with the wrong information which may lead to the same conclusion, but going a wrong path.
As we get more complex in our lives and as a culture the more gaps we need to fill thus the more mistakes we make. The business man may be an idiot when trying to manage a programmer, as he may be missing vital knowledge about the work, he over simplifies what needs to be done. But the same happens with a skilled programmer tries to make business decisions, he over simplifies the complexity of business and the fact that things are more expensive then it seems. So the businessman is seen as an idiot to the programmer, and the programmer is seemed as an idiot to the businessman. Because both sides use different measurements and wights to measure their abilities.

Re:Hmm

[Rakarra]

The majority of people could be above-average drivers is the bad drivers are -so- bad that they throw off the average.

Idiots are everywhere

[sincewhen]

Here's a clue... You encounter idiots everywhere in life. Sometimes they are just caught off guard, sometimes they are having a bad day, sometimes they are outside their domain of expertise, and sometimes they are simply a waste of space.

You have to find the patience within yourself to get on with your life, accepting that there are some things you can't change.

But getting angry or depressed about it certainly won't help.

Re:Idiots are everywhere

[GiovanniZero]

I think the hardest thing about being "The Computer Guy" is that people stop taking the time to think through problems themselves and just ask you. That ends up making their questions stupid because they no longer need to think about problems.

Re:Idiots are everywhere

[popmaker]

Or maybe they're out of their expertise. Really, should everyone be thinking computer-related problems through when they can ask the experts? There are a lot of problems related, for example, to finance, that I'd rather have my bank doing. I don't see them frowning on me for not knowing something I asked them.

We each have a finite amount of time for solving problems, and a finite number of abilities, each of which is at least somewhat specialised.

No one can be good at everything. And calling somebody an idiot for not being good at what YOU do is simply not fair.

Re:Idiots are everywhere

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

Don't come to me with "I can't print". Come to me with "when I print, I get an error message that says 'xyz 123', when I opened the print thingy (que) there are like 200 jobs in there, I tried rebooting and a different printer but no go, can you help?"

Why? All they want to do is a print a document. When they can't print it, they call the folks who can fix that (presumably you). Their job isn't to troubleshoot the problem - it's to write that document and print it. By definition, they can't be wasting your time to bring the problem to you, because that's your job. If they can take some steps to make it easier for you, you should be thanking them - but not holding it against them if they don't.

Technology may not be your thing, and that is fine. But problem solving better be on your list of skills, or you are going to be a huge liability for me, yourself and who ever we work for. Not just with technology, but with anything.

. Solving problems within their domain of expertise is what they do for a living. Solving problems within your domain of expertise is what you do for a living. Where's the fuzzy line?

I may be abnormal, but I have degrees in business, computers and I'm finishing up my accounting degree. I say that, to say this... the same set of problem solving skills are used in all these fields. The only difference is the background knowledge needed to make it work.

That's rather key isn't it? If they don't have the background knowledge of computers, they lack the ability to do even simple troubleshooting - no matter that the basics of troubleshooting are the same the world over. "Printer queue? What's that? Wait, I can use other printers? How do I do that?"

Re:Idiots are everywhere

[smoker2]

Intelligence is defined by the questions you ask, not what you already know. If you can't be bothered to even wonder privately how something works, then just asking someone else for the answers shows a lack of intelligence. People who at least try to build a model of their environment in their brains, deserve a lot more respect than those who blindly do what they're told or shut down until the environment is back in their comfort zone. Stupidity is doing the same thing again and again, and expecting a different result.

There is an advert on the tv at the moment, where they're selling no win, no fee personal injury claim lawyer services. The illustration they use is a guy who was asked to fix a light fitting but "they gave me the wrong kind of ladder". He ended up on his ass and had to spend months off work. Well I don't know about you, but I cannot equate myself in any way to an idiot who can't use a ladder properly. I mean, if it's your neck on the block, it's up to you to look after yourself. Either find a better ladder, or secure the one you have so it can't fall over. It's not rocket science.

Another example. I used to work in a metal shop making tubular furniture. One machine was used to reduce the diameter of a tube so that it would fit inside a similar diameter tube. To hold the tube while this was done, there were two hydraulic clamps that held the tube tightly. Oil used to build up on these clamps which necessitated cleaning them occasionally. One bright spark, decided to clean the clamps without turning the machine off, and then managed to use the foot switch while his fingers were in the way. Voila, 3 fingers crushed (and later amputated). DICK HEAD !
The really sad part about this is that he more than likely works in IT these days. What is he going to break next ?

What I have a hard time accepting is that I am in any way superior intelligence wise than anybody else. Consequently, when something as basic as survival is at stake, surely everybody has the ability to consider their situation. That they obviously don't is what really saddens me. How can you trust anybody who doesn't even have the brain to look after themselves. The scary part is, we are all forced to trust these people, every day. Walking down the street you are mere feet away from the deadly force that is the motor car. A large proportion of the drivers controlling this deadly force are complete and utter mouth breathers. So what if they have ABS and airbags ? That's not going to help me as a pedestrian when they mount the pavement because their damn phone rang or they got a text message. Solution - always face into the direction of the traffic so at least you'll have a chance to save yourself. Automation is NOT the answer. That would be akin to never toilet training a child. Unless they learn to do it themselves, they will always rely on someone(or something) else to do it for them. And then the familiar refrain of "it's not MY fault" is heard yet again. You can train a cat to shit in a box for christs sake, and they are one of the least trainable animals available.

Without meaning to go all religious on your asses, the question "Am I my brothers keeper ?" springs to mind. Apparently, yes. Without someone who has a clue watching over all these lesser intelligences the world would be even more fucked up that it already is. But of course, they have a right to be an idiot, and they resent anyone who tries to keep them alive and in one piece.
Then again, the Darwin Awards would be a lot duller without them.

I have come to the conclusion that the only real reason that there are idiots left in the world is because someone else likes it that way. It is to their nefarious benefit to have a large population of stupid robots who can't press a button without being trained to do so first. We control the horizontal, we control the vertical, what we say is the way it's going to be. I'm homing in on the difference between Windows and an open source OS. Windows only gives you so many options, any open source

I might be one of them.

[Samschnooks]

But getting angry or depressed about it certainly won't help.

I prefer pathological apathy - I'm working towards just not giving a shit anymore. There's nothing I can do about much of anything: I'm just an average and sometimes below average peon with no power. I might even be one of those idiots, so I guess it's a good thing that I can't do much.

How to be happy...

[skelly33]

Well I'll post this even though Slashdot is rife with hyper-critical, negative and cynical readers who would enjoy shredding something they are not open to because it can be helpful to someone who reads it with an open mind: How to be Happy, a free e-book (PDF).

Aside from absorbing that and a handful of other books on managing stress, anxiety and grounding oneself, the other two tricks I've adopted are:

* Stop reading/watching the "news"; as much as I share the concerns of most with respect to world affairs, I have found that following it too closely only makes me depressed about things I have no control over nor influence on.

* Stop watching T.V.; I actually canceled my cable and gave away my TV and game system to a local family for xmas. Not only did I have the satisfaction of giving, but I have more free time now to pursue things that actually do make me happy.

You may not be able to control your work environment, however you can control the other aspects of your life and how you choose to spend your time. Perhaps one day you will find that your life is so fulfilling outside of work that your tolerance and acceptance of imperfect circumstances at work improves to the point where it just doesn't matter to you any more.

Re:How to be happy...

[MichaelSmith]

Yeah I hear a lot of people do that when they move into the retirement home. Helps pay for the funeral down the track.

Re:How to be happy...

[CaptCovert]

I think you're on to the right idea here (if a bit over-the-top on implementation), in that we do need to shut down some of the 'news' we have to deal with. Find the things that interest you, and learn about them; don't let others tell you what is and is not important for you to know (I know that technically I'm doing the same thing. Semantics are awesome.).

Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that you get rid of your TV, it's just a tool, after all, and what you do with it is up to you. Of course, if that is what it takes for you to finally shut out all of the unnecessary garbage... do so with my blessing :)

Frustration?

[geek]

I used to get frustrated a lot. That was before I grew up and realized not everyone follows the same life path I do.

Dumb questions do exist. I laugh when people say "there are no dumb questions" and I laugh even harder when people say "the only dumb question is the one not asked." In all honesty, both are wrong but I have learned that the only dumb question is the one asked repeatedly. If I have to explain something to someone twice, i figure "ok they just forgot, happens to me too." But if I have to tell someone, or explain something to someone over and over and over, then it's a dumb question asked by a dumb person. However, with that said, feeling frustrated doesn't help. Just walk away, don't help them, don't explain. Tell them to figure it out and stop wasting your time. If this is on the job, tell their manager and get them replaced for incompetence.

It isn't worth getting frustrated and angry. Your emotions are your responsibility. A wise man once told me, "10% of life is what happens to you, the other 90% is how you deal with it."

Re:Frustration?

[Anonymous Coward]

But if I have to tell someone, or explain something to someone over and over and over, then it's a dumb question asked by a dumb person.

How do you know you aren't just giving out stupid answers?

Re:Frustration?

[slash.duncan]

You sound like me, but formed from different life experiences. =:^)

I don't worry so much about questions, perhaps because I've become /used/ to dealing with people asking them, but do get bothered when I see someone say "I had no choice", because in reality, that's choosing to be a passive victim, not an active overcomer. Unfortunately, I've been there.

I was a (repeat) victim of abuse earlier in life. That's how I learned about victim syndrome, failing to appreciate the choices one has, continually reevaluate personal priorities in the light of changing reality, and assertively choose and act on your choices based on that, the hard way. The victim /lets/ life happen to him, and often believes /himself/ that he "has no choice", because he's /chosen/ to be passive, to /be/ a victim. The overcomer may in fact have many of the same terrible calamities happen, but actively evaluates his options and dynamically responds accordingly, reevaluating and adjusting as he goes, choosing NOT to allow himself to remain forever a victim, but to overcome it and use it to his advantage.

The victim chooses to let life happen to him. The overcomer forces life to let him "happen" to it.

That was a hard lesson to learn, and those events will forever remain a part of me, but having learned it, I've now taken advantage of them, and don't believe I'd remove them even if I could, because then I'd not be "me", but someone else.

10% fate, 90% what you choose to do with it or how you react to it, indeed!

Charitable contributions

[Man On Pink Corner]

I find that it's easier to avoid taking other peoples' idiocy to heart when I can pay various non-profit organizations to deal with it on my behalf. Some recent favorites include:

The ever-present EFF
The Freedom from Religion Foundation
The American Library Association
The Wikimedia Foundation
The Nevada chapter of the ACLU (which is explicitly pro-Second Amendment, unlike the national body)

There are plenty of other worthy causes; those are just the ones on my list this year. Think about it this way: the God-botherers contribute a full 10% of their income, pre-tax, to try to drag civilization back into the Middle Ages. What's the best you can do?

Re:Charitable contributions

[Anonymous Coward]

"Christianity is doing wonders in Africa at changing the hearts of millions and bringing them to a point where they can build peaceful, stable societies."

Christianity is doing wonders in Africa at changing the hearts of millions and bringing them to a point where they can contribute 10% of their income.

Fixed it for you

Re:Charitable contributions

[sincewhen]

Christianity is doing wonders in Africa at changing the hearts of millions and bringing them to a point where they can build peaceful, stable societies.

You say "Christianity" I would say "Good people working together under the banner of Christanity."

The problem I have with such missionary work is the expectation (if not explicit requirement) that the recipients convert to Christianity.

Keep it in perspective

[Concerned Onlooker]

The easiest way to stay upbeat is to remember that you, too, are an idiot. Everyone is an idiot from time to time. When you see idiocy in others that is the time to take an even closer look at yourself to see what lacunae reside in your own thinking.

Re:Keep it in perspective

[SerpentMage]

BINGO...

I always say that a democracy and freedom of speech is the right to be an idiot! And I do mean it quite literally, I have the right to say something that can make me the biggest ARSE on the planet, and it would depress the heck out anyone around me.

So BE HAPPY that we have those rights. Because many countries you don't have the right to be an idiot! And that is when life gets really depressing...

Re:Keep it in perspective

[Anonymous Coward]

I think this is the most important thing I've learned in my life.

All people do what seems best from their perspective. They have trouble evaluating things that they are emotionally invested in (particularly things that affect them directly), but they do try on some level. Everyone essentially makes the same mistakes, to varying degrees. Of course, there are some truly pathological cases, but the underlying causes are the same.

And I can't escape these underlying causes. Try as I might to fight error, I remain human, just like everyone else. The key to enduring the world is to keep fighting your own errors and forgiving those of the people around you.

Re:Focus on the positive

[snowgirl]

In the long run, Everybody Dies.

Haha, true. This is a very fortunate thing. Reading the first paragraph of TFA, I realized that they were describing the same exact thing I felt reading Conservapedia. It's like, funny for 5 minutes, but then it starts getting you depressed, and you start wanting to kill someone, usually the idiot doing it... then you start wanting to kill yourself because you realize that they're all around you.

The thing I keep telling myself is that these are concentrated stories of idiocy, and that the real world isn't composed of nearly the amount of them that I think there is by reading those stories. However, true. That they're going to die someday certainly helps. Here's to Schlafly's eventual death!

Simple

[MikeRT]

You accept the fact that the world has always been dominated by idiots and malcontents and yet, somehow, it has managed to survive.

Mediocre Blog Rubbish

[Qbertino]

As of today, we shall call this sort of stuff MBR - Mediocre Blog Rubbish.

Newsflash: Businesses care squat about technology. They're in it for the money. I'm currently employed in a gig with a 300 percent growth rate (and rising!) and we build our stuff by standards that are close to outdated in some parts. So what? Who cares if the application model is a mess and half the team barely know how to use versioning? ... Well, I do, actually, and I tell my teammates to *use* versioning and f*cking comment their commits, but I try not to be to pesky about it, it leads no where. A few weeks ago I showed one programmer on my team that you could mark a line by pressing shift and the down key. He didn't know that. No joke. He didn't know Keyboard Computer Interface 101, first lesson and has been programming in this company for 1.5 years and has quite some IT experience prior to this. Is he stupid? No. Ignorant? Maybe. But I trust he just didn't know and nobody had shown him yet. And from his reaction - he was glad I showed him and wanted to hear some more 'tricks' :-) - I judge he is an open minded fellow in this respect.

And as long as we are able to push out the code faster than our competitors do and are able to deliver products our customers like, we'll all keep our jobs. And if the company shrinks some time in the future, wether I know how to correctly normalise an app-model, what the LAMP stack actually looks like from the inside and why the MS Windows line of OSes actually really *does* suck in ways beyond most regular IT peoples imagination and my teammates don't, doesn't matter squat when we all are scheduled for layoff. The only difference is that I take more interest in certain details of my field and have more experience than some of them and that I am thus more suitable for research or foundation work. Such as building better tools, training or optimising the pipeline. Which I intend to (continue) to do in the future, for my projects, my department and my team.

Bottom line: If you're oh-so-much smarter than the rest around you, get in to management, team-lead, FOSS project maintenance or an academic gig in computer science. Otherwise shut the fuck up.

My 2 Euros.

Think outside the box.

[coryking]

I'm beginning to realize too many engineers and computer nerds fall into a trap where they can only see how things will fail. This makes sense, because that is what a good engineer should do. However, the brightest engineers I know often have a hard time thinking outside the box. When given an idea that doesn't mesh with their existing view of the world, they are often quick to shoot it down.

I think many engineers would do very well to learn things and associate with people who are very far from their occuptaions. Hang out with somebody who does Feng Shui for a living--it really is just a different language for expressing good design and architecture. Read up on Taoism. Hang out with people who deal with the public--a nurse or something. Hang out with a couple artists. Learn Jazz, where the idea is to *not* have a rigid musical structure. Force yourself to enjoy sports... hockey has a lot of skill! Force yourself into doing things that don't require stringent rules like programming. And for god sake, stop trying to fucking correct your girlfriend/wife/whatever on minor technical details (even though it is hard sometimes, trust me)!!

The more you force yourself to *stop* thinking like an engineer, the better you'll be at engineering and the happier your life will be overall.

Re:Think outside the box.

[dubl-u]

I'm beginning to realize too many engineers and computer nerds fall into a trap where they can only see how things will fail. [...] Force yourself into doing things that don't require stringent rules like programming. And for god sake, stop trying to fucking correct your girlfriend/wife/whatever on minor technical details (even though it is hard sometimes, trust me)!!

Yeah, I had a similar epiphany a decade ago. After a hard week dealing with my dying grandparents, and a six-hour drive in bad weather, I came home to find my roommate's relentlessly negative girlfriend sitting in my favorite chair, drinking my scotch.

For the next hour I sat numbly while she complained at me about whatever speck of the world's badness was bothering her at the time. Eventually she went away, and I had an incredible feeling of relief. It was like somebody had finally stopped feeding scrap tin through a paper shredder. Over the next few hours I killed the bottle of scotch and thought a lot about the nature of life.

When the hangover cleared the next morning, I had already made my decision: negative people were annoying as fuck, and I resolved not to be one. It took me a long time to retrain myself, and I still slip occasionally. But it was entirely worth it, both for its effect on others and on my own mental health.

God-botherer here.

[Anonymous Coward]

There are plenty of other worthy causes; those are just the ones on my list this year. Think about it this way: the God-botherers (sic) contribute a full 10% of their income, pre-tax, to try to drag civilization back into the Middle Ages. What's the best you can do?

That's a rather large net in which you have trapped us religious folks. As someone who likes to support organizations both financially and physically, I don't know your beef with my support.

The Middle Ages were a long time off and thankfully the world has come a long way. How exactly does someone like me, who wants to do good in the world want to drag the world back to the Middle Ages?

The tax breaks exist, to which I'm indifferent but take advantage of, because the idea of contributing to a charity allows the world to be a little better and is often more efficient than the State's arm.

Just make fun of them

[desinc]

Part of my job is working as help desk. The only way to survive is to make fun of the noobies. When someone sends you an email reading "Please help, my internet doesn't work." you can't help but laugh...

Stay smarmy, slashdot

[not already in use]

FTS:

the complete idiocy that intelligent, tech-savvy readers often have to deal with in their day-to-day lives

It's these self-proclaimed intelligent, tech-savvy readers I find to be the biggest idiots of all. Clearly a smarmy, self-righteous bunch too.

Or slightly rephrased

[coryking]

They have trouble evaluating things that they are emotionally invested in (particularly things that affect them directly), but they do try on some level

Simply replace the word "They" with "I".

The dumbest, most miserable people on earth are those who cannot find fault in themselves.

Re:Stay humble

[ImOnlySleeping]

I don't see how thinking about one kind of stupid rather than another would make me feel any better. That's just twice as depressing.

You can care

[coryking]

But I think the secret to "caring" is to pull yourself out of yourself, so to speak. Stop worrying about your existence and thing about how we as a society are evolving.

You are but a small twig on a mighty river. You might be able to paddle around a little bit. You can always choose which twigs you want float next to. You can always choose how you want to react to wherever the river takes you. But ultimately, you cannot control the path the river takes through the universe.

To put it more succinctly:

Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Maybe being upbeat is the idocy...

[daigu]

Try reading The Long Emergency or Kunstler's blog. While he's a little doom and gloom, the basic fact that we aren't living sustainably, and when the oil gets more scarce or environment starts getting all up in it, there's going to be a lag before any major energy change or sustainability movement is going to kick in - and it is likely going to require a significant reduction of the human population.

So, make sure you have some basic tools on hand and have done what you can to prepare. The next few decades are going to be interesting.

Re:Maybe being upbeat is the idocy...

[Blakey Rat]

People have been saying that since the beginning of time. Nearly every major religion is based around that general theme. It's total bunk, complete and utter shit.

Serious answer. Cut the judgemental attitude.

[eh2o]

Calling people "Idiots" is 1) not helpful for others and 2) only encourages aggravation in yourself. Its counterproductive in every way. Selfishness and altruism are both fine qualities, they can co-exist, and will get you far in life. Being a zealot won't get you anything.

People are naive, stubborn, uneducated and manipulated. But all of those are qualities that can be changed--they are not idiots.

You must be very smart.

[coryking]

Surely since you are an IT professional, you can talk to me about the advances in GPUs. Which shader programming language is the best?

I bet you love when people ask you, "The computer guy" what you think about some computer topic you know nothing about. Obviously since you know about computers, you can help them install the game their kid downloaded for their RAZR, right?

You know what I hate more then what you hate? When people try to pretend they know about my profession more then I do. People who know just enough buzzwords of whatever I do that they have fooled themselves into thinking they know stuff I dont. And I dont know much, trust me.

But I dont really hate those kind of people. I just pity those people and hope someday they learn that they dont know nearly as much as they think they do.

I dont know a fucking thing about how to design an embedded software application, but I'm a computer guy. I dont know how to program for mainframes, but I'm a computer guy. I dont know (but I'm trying to learn) graphics programming, but I'm a computer guy. Should I, a "computer guy" know about all these topics in great detail?

The world is a big place. Maybe being a "metal guy" means more then just knowing about whatever steel type you read in a magazine? Maybe being an English teacher means knowing more then just "basic grammar rules" you read on "grammar-nazi.com". Maybe being a nurse means a fucking bit more then just knowing details about medications (hint, that is the doctors job, not the nurse, but obviously you know more about nursing then a nurse, so you knew that, right?). Maybe being a doctor means knowing more then just modern smoking complications?

The world is a big place. Bigger, maybe, then you can comprehend. It pays to be humble. Being a wise-ass know-it-all will just get you nowhere in life.

Re:You must be very smart.

[Klootzak]

I dont know a fucking thing about how to design an embedded software application, but I'm a computer guy. I dont know how to program for mainframes, but I'm a computer guy. I dont know (but I'm trying to learn) graphics programming, but I'm a computer guy. Should I, a "computer guy" know about all these topics in great detail?

From your website, it seems that you're a Digital Photography/Multimedia/Web guy. To those outside your field, they may refer to you as a "Computer Guy" because you work with Computers? To correct the confusion (if it annoys you)... why not simply tell them what you are?

I DO know how to design an embedded software application, and how to program for (a few types of) mainframes, and (some) graphics programming... however most people I meet think I'm a Barrista and/or Chef, and that's fine too, I don't get upset about it... that's just something else I do, and I'm happy for people to think that.

Being a wise-ass know-it-all will just get you nowhere in life.

Generally it means that people who need your knowledge and wise-ass-ness will ask for it, or appreciate you offering your assistance when required. There's a difference between saying "I'm the Smartest Person on Slashdot" and saying "This is what I think" or "This is how that (whatever thing) works".

Re:Stay humble

[atraintocry]

You didn't see his title then: stay humble. We all have some stupidity lurking with on. It's harder to drum up that nerd rage when we look at our own.

Re:Nonsense

[Anonymous Coward]

And in truth though it IS easier to get a econ or marketing or management degree. My fiew just finished her 3rd degree and all she has to say about the Business administration students....

"Wow those people are stupid, I fell like I'm in kindergarden level classes"

She has her CPA a masters in accounting and mathematics.

after what she said, I now have zero respect for anyone with a Business degree. It's the classes for the 80IQ and lower crowd.

and after being an It manager of a fortune 100 company, The marketing and other business related degree holders tend to actually be rather dumb.

it's like a Liberal arts degree, it's something to make the special people feel accomplished.

This is very simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't be an elitist idiot.

Re:Nonsense

[Dun Malg]

Word to the wise, if your girlfriend or wife is a nurse and you claim that your engineering degree was harder then their nursing degree because they never took calculus, be prepared to spend the night on the couch. Just a tip.

Still, my $TYPE engineering degree makes me more then qualified to do any profession. Why, with a few books from the library and maybe a couple Google searches I could probably give your friend that kidney transplant they need. How hard could it be anyway, those overpaid doctors never had to work with Laplace transforms!

Well, there is something to what you say. Having worked both in an engineering capacity and as a skilled tradesman, I've noticed that there is a distinct difference between between the two. Doctors and nurses are skilled tradespeople, like highly trained auto mechanics. No one is ever going to ask a doctor to design a better human being, any more than anyone is going to ask an auto mechanic to design a better car. This is not to say that it's easy to be able to instantly recognize the symptoms of disease (x), or the bad interaction of drugs (y) and (z); just that it's not a particularly creative field of endeavor. Engineering and the hard sciences (including programming) are less about being able to instantly reference huge volumes of memorized information, and more about taking a small amount of basic knowledge and putting it together in new ways.

Re:Nonsense

[The Grim Reefer2]

Well, we all know Vets are smarter than people doctors -- after all, the dog can't tell the doctor where it hurts.

Actually it's more than that. They also have to deal with the anatomy of more than just one species.

Maybe I'm Inferior to You

[Comatose51]

One habit I've taken up is to always remember all the times I've screwed up and done something idiotic. I also try to remember how graceful people have been about those occasions. That's not to say that I'm always all forgiving -- I've been known to go unhinged on programmers who don't bother testing their code at least once. Still, when someone screws up and if their intention is benign, I recall similar situations I've been in and it makes it easier to say "No worries". Some of you might have never been in a situation where you were the idiot but I'm thankful that I'm been the idiot a few times at least.

Re:Nonsense

[HungSoLow]

I'd argue that the mathematics is the easiest part of engineering. It's the problem solving that is most difficult - especially when confronting with an entirely new problem OR you're on the bleeding edge developement or research. I'd say mostly anyone can learn the mathematics given enough dedication - problem solving is something quite difficult to learn!

Re:Stop focusing on "idiocy"

[DNS-and-BIND]

Funny how it's never the non-elites who have the shitty ideas like "let's kill 6 million people because we don't agree with their political views". It's always the elites. Funny, that.

Re:Thank you for admiting it

[epine]

I'm sure if you ask anybody else, they would agree that they too are smarter then the rest of Slashdot. Why do you think we all post here?

Slashdot, the game show: I'm smarter than you, and I can prove it in five disconnected, ungrammatical sentences.

Personally, I post here because it allows me to commune with the human truth that no matter whether you have a brain or a clue or both, it doesn't help much if you don't plug it in and turn it on.

The problem with being blinded by your own brilliance is tripping over the power cord.

No, more often than not, the game show here is "I'm smarter than you and I can prove without turning my brain on in the first place". We've all discovered that the engine roars loudest with your foot on the clutch.

I'm only about half way through, and this crop isn't as good as previous years, but I did like this one:

http://www.edge.org/q2009/q09_7.html#fisher

I know this might be a shocking proposal, but it is possible we might someday learn what the people who post here actually get out of it.

Rarely does it involve being taken seriously for substantive contribution. The dance is something entirely different.

I think some posters here have been trapped so long in the vacuous underbelly of IT support, they actually crave being told how stupid they've been, as if being hit over the head with a clue stick is better than no clue stick at all, by the same calculus that it's better to have a hot chick spit at you than fail to note your existence.

From another perspective, there are just enough people around here (but not on every thread) firing live ammunition to make crawling under the fence on your belly an interesting sport.

I used to know an usher back when Cats played in Toronto. I think it was the kind of theater where you pass the ticket boxes into the main lobby where a giant staircase sits in the middle, 5m wide at the base, covered in red carpet, with curved brass banisters. She never ceased to be amazed at how many people came up to her and asked, "do these stairs go up?" I've seen threads here with 200 posts that never got much above that level.

On a side note, I've often wondered if the people who persist in posting the deflated "in Soviet Russia" have the same brain activation pattern of a dog urinating on a fire hydrant. Really, that meme has all the appeal of a eunuch's scrotum.

It's pretty far fetched to claim the average poster here is engaged in a meaningful battle of wits, even from the safe refuge of mock sarcasm.

Not quite...

[mario_grgic]

medical profession does require memorization of a large amount of raw data, but it's the synthesis of that base knowledge that makes you a doctor.

Unlike mathematics and it's branches like CS or physics, you can not derive how a human being works from some raw initial data (like you can derive a theory from axioms). Hence in math you just memorize the initial axioms and nerves of proofs of important theorems and go from there. If you are good at it you can get by with just that. If you are not so good you memorize more of the key points of the proofs.

In medicine you actually don't have axioms just raw data and very few theories on how things should work. So you must memorize that data.

But as a practicing doctor your daily life depends on the synthesis of that data. You must derive conclusions from much larger base of knowledge and be good at recognizing patterns.

Usually several hundred ailments have similar symptoms. So the first step is always to make a differential diagnosis listing all possible things that might have those symptoms and then sorting the list by likelihood, and then you start eliminating the problems one by one by doing diagnostic tests and routing patients further to people who specialize in particular areas.

Needless to say mistakes can be costly both in terms of patients well being if you do not consider something in your differential diagnosis or economically if you suspect something whose elimination requires an expensive diagnostic test or invasive for the patient.

So I guess all I'm saying is that oversimplification of professions like that is never going to lead to reliable conclusions.

Desiderata

[MrKaos]

After 25 years of IT, I still feel like I know nothing, I try to read and learn everything, one day I might know something. I find this helps.

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Re:Nonsense

[jd142]

It all depends on what level of the profession you are at. There are plenty of doctors out there testing, theorizing, and working towards better treatments and prevention of all kinds of illnesses and injuries. That takes creativity. Some of them are designing better human beings through gene therapy, prosthetics, new surgical techniques and so on.

Sure a lot of them are doing routine work with nothing more exotic than poison oak, but there are lots of engineers in the same situation.