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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."
Liquor.
Instead of focusing on all the tech details that other folks get wrong, think of all the economic dogma and confused legal interpretations that otherwise intelligent people allow themselves to parrot.
I was going to blog about this very subject today, but I couldn't get onto my Journalspace for some reason.
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.
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.
-- Braden's law of data: All data spends some of its lifetime in an excel spreadsheet.
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.
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.
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."
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?
More than a few friends of mine and I have felt that we should slow down and make what we have work correctly, if not better, rather than move on to the next idea.
Pretty good combat the horror of life advice. OTOH, DFW killed himself this year, so maybe that's not a ringing endorsement
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.
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
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!
WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
You accept the fact that the world has always been dominated by idiots and malcontents and yet, somehow, it has managed to survive.
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.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
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.
And Frank Herbert, in Heretics of Dune noted that:
"Bureaucracy destroys initiative. There is little that bureaucrats hate more than innovation, especially innovation that produces better results than the old routines. Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look inept. Who enjoys appearing inept?"
Knowing why people sometimes block good ideas helps me cope with it. Thank you for that, Frank.
"A wonderful summary?" To me it just looks like a bunch of psychobabble that is totally meaningless. It was said in a more comprehensible and concise manner by the song "Don't Worry; Be Happy." It reminds me of my boss's favorite saying (and the favorite of many, I gather): "It is what it is." WTF is that supposed to mean?
I feel sorry for people that don't drink, because when they get up in the morning, that's as good as they're gonna feel
I don't stay upbeat. I have a few brief orgasmic moments of optimism every so often, but it never lasts: inevitably I'll encounter some idiot(s) who remind me just how bad reality really is, in the absence of blissful ignorance.
Frankly, though, I'd rather remain this way than take some pill that bestows bliss. I have a sneaking suspicion the shit will seriously hit the fan while I yet live, and all that pessimism may come in handy when it does.
I suggest everyone reads this. It especially helps if you've done or are currently doing tech support. This chronicles the Almighty Gord, and details how to deal with stupid customers. http://www.actsofgord.com/
Could the article or summary be a little more vague? I think the "Short-sighted incumbent forces association" might be a little offended by this.
Who exactly is reffered to by "incumbent forces." Is it a specific term in some field I'm not aware of, or is the author intentionally being cryptic because he can't think up any specific examples to support his argument? I think it's far from general to, uh, "innovation." I don't think there's any "incumbent forces" trying to stop innovation in the field of, say, cancer research.
Using that term makes it sound like there's a specific organization out there, whose mission statement is "to hold back the tides are annoying and disruptive (not in a good way) in the short run and oppose 'innovation.'" No? Would that include other things, like not being able to find your shoes as in "This morning, I wanted to go out and innovate, but I couldn't find my shoes, so I didn't."
Guy sounds like he's trying to sell inspirational tapes to paranoid technophiles.
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.
I simply try to laugh at most of what I see here on Slashdot. After all, it's even worse elsewhere.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
We're pretty close ( ~20-30 years ) to making Human Suspended Animation a reality. Assuming Humanity doesn't destroy itself in the next 50 years, and assuming free thought, genius, and scientific progress continues in some part of the world during that time, there's a good chance that within my lifetime I could be put into suspended animation, for, say, 500 years. After waking up, and taking into account current trends in IQ decline and general stupidity, I'd be welcomed as a God on Earth because the entire Human population would have (de)-evolved into a bunch of borderline retarded idiots.
jdb2
You are an idiot, I'm an idiot, we are all an idiot. A month ago, I called the cable company to complain about how the History Channel never seemed to come in clearly. The lady on the phone walked me through basic trouble shooting. She had me re-seat the coax connector on the back of the tuner. Well gee I thought, I had the wire tightened down to the back of the tuner with a cresent wrench, what will this solve? Guess what, after re-seating the damn thing, the History Channel worked like a charm.
Did I feel like an idiot for having to call for tech support only to have my problem resolved after walking through the "is the computer plugged in" level of troubleshooting? Yeah. But if I didn't call, the History Channel would still come in pretty shitty.
We are all idiots. All you can do is laugh at yourself and enjoy your life. When I did tech support, I enjoyed it simply because I enjoyed chatting with the people whose computer I was fixing, and I enjoyed how thankful most of them were that I was able to fix their black box.
I dont do tech support anymore, but it was a lot of fun when I did.
I just collect quips — running feet and funny sigs off Slashdot, weird comments from wherever, twisted quotations (O dear User! I am ill at these numbers! I have not art to reckon my groans! Hamlet) — into one massive file. I have a tiny program that does nothing but pick a random quip from the file and display it (or send it to someone else on the network). Someday I'll make a screensaver out of it...
I figure by 2030 or so my 6-digit UID will be something to brag about.
Recognize that intelligent, tech-savvy people are just as much a font of ignorance, error, and groupthink as anyone else. Study the psychology of learning and decision making and discover that most of what you call "idiocy" is actually the same set of heuristics and biases that make us intelligent in the first place applied in situations where they don't work. Now, for the real mind-binder -- start looking at what you think you know and how you came to know it. How much of it is based on your own direct research and controlled experimentation? How much of it is based on incomplete information or a biased investigation? How much of it is just stuff your friends happen to believe?
The answer is "almost all of it". Turns out it's really hard to actually *know* anything at all, even from a practical standpoint. We get away with being wrong most of the time because there are few direct consequences for most of our beliefs (when was the last time your political opinions really mattered?). And once you understand how easy you are to fool, it becomes a lot easier to see how other people can make the same mistakes, and how often they're the ones who are right, not you.
But before you do any of that, drop the Slashdot Superiority Complex. There are few things in this story more ridiculous than the implicit idea that the world should be run by the same people who write comments on tech news sites.
Visit the
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...
Stupid blog though.
I've found a combination of liquor followed by swift and blinding violence generally works for me.
Everybody on Slashdot has far less brain power then me. 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? We are all smarter then everybody else here. We merely exist to point out how much of an idiot people not like us are.
If you point out that *I'm* and idiot, you are wrong because remember I'm the smartest Slashdot poster here. The point of contention then becomes the fact that you cannot have two "Smartest Slashdot Posters" and so we debate.
However, since everybody but me is an idiot, they lack the mental ability to understand how smart I truly am. This thought, that I alone am the only Smart Person On Earth, makes me depressed. However, I'm no idiot like the author of this "Ask Slashdot". Smart people dont "Ask" questions--they already know the answers. Questions are for clueless sheep.
Obviously I do have the answer to the "question", but only an idiot would give it--it would reward asking questions and thus reward not knowing things. Never answer questions, people should learn on their own. Any Smart Slashdot Poster knows this.
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.
Similes are like metaphors
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.
Was to stack the questions to prefer those who make you look good.
Of course, if you get caught then it might not look so great for you.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Mr. Masnick's techdirt post is a welcome call for calm and even optimism. It is a reminder of the importance of perspective, the sort of wisdom encapsulated in the expression "This, too, shall pass" -- that is, just as most joy and glory is transient, so will the troubles and woes of today eventually vanish.
That said, his post is revealingly presumptuous. He writes about people trying to "hold back progress" and describes his frustration at not being able to convince them "of just what opportunities moving forward provides." But perhaps the reason he is so frustrated is that he misses a basic truth: that the people he describes aren't actually seeking to "hold back progress" -- they just have a different understanding of what is progress and what isn't, of what counts as "moving forward" and what doesn't. People do not agree on what is in the public interest; they do not agree about what is best for society, for the state, for the family.
Persuading those who disagree with you is not always a matter of marshalling facts or, as Mr. Masnick puts it, "clearly paint[ing] a picture." Often the people who disagree with you already understand the facts full well and already see the picture clearly -- they just disagree about whether what you call progress is indeed progress. This disagreement might well be rooted in a vision of the future that is fundamentally in conflict with your own. (See, for example, Thomas Sowell's A Conflict of Visions and Yuval Levin's Imagining the Future .)
This, incidentally, is why the book that Mr. Masnick approvingly cites, Robert Friedel's excellent A Culture of Improvement, deliberately eschews the term "progress". You might think human cloning or nuclear weapons or Windows Vista are all examples of unambiguous progress; your neighbor might well disagree.
I simply vow constantly and loudly to one day rule this planet and wipe out a not-insignificant chunk of the population. (Namely, the stupid people.) Hey, a chaotic-neutral genius has to have goals.
Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
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:
I took freshman economics in college. I've studied differential equations (which those business weenies never had to). I've written in assembler. Economics *has* to be easy, those guys never had to study calculus based physics! Same with marketing--those guys never studied assembler like I did, so how hard could their profession be!? I mean, just show the clients a plain text file that highlights which features in our product are better, and which are not and let the client decide!
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!
I agree. When I read
in the summary, my first thought was
If you really were the Smartest Poster On Slashdot, you'd be smart enough to know that in fact I was actually the Smartest Poster On Slashdot. Only I am smart enough to know that I am the Smartest Poster On Slashdot.
culminating in a thread on slashdot.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
Times like these are not fun, but they wash away complacency and often are the trigger of a great deal of restructuring and innovation.
There's been plenty of times in human history where civilization reaches a certain peak and then backslides.
This is my sig.
...and this is a prime example for why there should be a +1 sad, cruel truth mod.
A good education is a bit like a STD - it makes you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and gives you a desire to spread it.
I live in West Virginia, where the concentration of idiocy seems to be at its highest.
I have nothing to say.
...nuff said.
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.
Last I heard, Africa's not the greatest place to be.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Laugh at it.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
But I think for the right reasons. They are all about standing up for their patients, regardless of the background or circumstance.
The reason I think most of them hate all this new IT is because so little of it works right. Systems go down. System A doesn't talk with System B so the doctor can't get the charts from the nurse or the lab, etc...
While I'm no support guy for the nursing crowd, having lived with a nurse, I might suggest the best way to frame arguments against installing "BouncyMouse.exe" are in terms of "well, that application might infect the computer and violate the patients privacy". Pretty much every nurse I've met is a die-hard privacy nut, so this might be the best line of "user training". If they object, point out how pissed they'd be if the hospital installed keyboard sniffers to see how much they work... point out that these viruses would be pretty much doing the same thing (not really, but the details don't matter so much.. bottom line is either one is a privacy violation that can steal patient information). Do realize though that they probably view your IT policies as a violation of their own rights (even if it isn't).
But seriously, if there ever was an industry in need of good usability professionals, it is heathcare!
...the idiots go pro.
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.
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.
So basically what they are saying is that the incumbent is evil. You realize that even 3rd world countries, tribes in Africa, hell even just monkeys are trying to "improve their lot" and trying to find new ideas. I'm sorry but I'm not impressed in anyway. I feel like this book is an appeal to everything American (We're ingenious! Incumbency sucks!)
When you find evidence that we're moving towards being a culture based PURELY on ideas and learning, I'll be impressed but saying that we innovate is like saying that people learn... wow, really?
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.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Y6231uAmo&NR=1
(No, Rickrolling)
Read Coryking's post in "Ed Gruberman's" voice...then give him a "Boot to the head"!
The Catholic Church accepts evolution (they're the ones who are big on the 10% thing...).
It's sad that that's even remarkable, but it's true nonetheless.
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
who? what? huh? I'm a bit confused here.
Prozac
Cymbalta
Wellbutrin
And if those don't cut it, there's always Heroin or even LSD.
If reality sucks, you shouldn't be upbeat. Unless you decouple your mood from reality, or your entire mind.
100 years from now, you will not be able to make a living as an anonymous coward suggesting that. However, "Then is When" has worked fairly successfully for me.
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.
But it can certainly be slowed to the point where it might as well be stopped. Critical mass must be maintained, or the entire economic engine will slow to a crawl.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Don't be an elitist idiot.
As someone who likes to support organizations both financially and physically, I don't know your beef with my support.
The devil's in the details. What does your church, and its larger governing body, do with your support? Tell Africans that HIV is spread through holes in condoms? Buy millions of dollars' worth of airtime to convince voters in California that civil rights are a matter for popular referendum? Attack public school boards like a bacteriophage, injecting antiscientific horseshit into the curriculum? My beef isn't with you, per se, but with the fact that I have to spend money to counteract what your church does with the money you give it. Unless you're a member of a Zen Buddhist congregation, they're probably using your funds to impose their beliefs on my life.
Hey, I'd rather support the Planetary Society and Mars Society instead of all those groups I mentioned, and you might even prefer that, too. Instead, I have to pay the FFRF, ALA, and various science-education lobbyists to keep fighting battles that should've ended 500 years ago.
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.
EvilCON - Made Famous by
.....keeps me upbeat, knowing that I didn't post it.
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
I just stopped reading any of the commentary on Slashdot. That took care of a huge chunk of my daily idiocy.
I will give you 14 8.5 X 11 pages to use
On these pages you will put the maximum amount of computer knowledge (must be readable without use of a magnifier by somebody with normal vision).
how much can you do WITH PICTURES INCLUDED
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
Even some atheists have admitted that 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.
Yes... this is like saying, "Those gosh darned natives, after a hundred years of starvation, murder, torture, and succumbing to European diseases, have finally decided to give Jesus a chance."
Christianity was the excuse used to destroy the perfectly civilized tribes of Africa in order to give the Church and the King the right to plunder their natural wealth, as they did in the Americas, and everywhere else their foul hands touched. It would have happened anyway, but the Church and colonialism are like bread and butter. Perhaps you are just finally giving all the money back that you stole from Africa. It's too bad there's so much corruption in the churches and governments now that it doesn't reach the people who need it.
Aww heck, just ignore these details. Go back to using God's word to divide the country and give political power to the Republicans who can't stand you, or Sarah Palin. Go back to pretending that the bible doesn't say that your own wealth will nearly guarantee that you won't enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Go back to the church where you sit in an air conditioned auditorium for a whole hour once a week with people who think exactly as you do, and pretend you're a spiritual being who's really involved in the "community."
Christ almighty, indeed.
Okay...
Do what now?
Embrace the idiots, for they are easy to influence and blind in their following. :)
Behind every evil genius stands an army of idiots. (You can quote me on this one
Why should a good genius not have an army of idiots too?
Get yourself a book on mass psychology, another one on neuro-linguistic programming, and become really good at the psychology of emotions. A rhetorics book can broaden your target group.
I personally prefer an underwater lair under a volcano, the male idiots out there, and the female idiots in my bed. (We germans have a saying: "Dumm fickt gut". "Stupid fucks good" :)
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
je bent een echte klootzak
Mama said, don't be afraid
Go out there and find your way
Take what you get and make the best of it
That's the secret
Papa told me, you live you learn
You play with fire, you might get burned
But what doesn't break you only makes you strong
That's the secret
So live every moment like it's your last
You wanna never say never
You walk through the wilderness with a laugh
A smile makes everything better
Life's what you make it
Life's what you make it
Go ahead, spread your wings
But don't forget the little things
Cause happiness is where you look for it
That's the secret
Hit or miss, that's what it is
Grab the fun and run with it
Don't blow them golden opportunities
That's the secret
So live every moment like it's your last
You wanna never say never
You walk through the wilderness with a laugh
A smile makes everything better
Life's what you make it
Life's what you make it
Gotta roll with the punches
Follow all your hunches
Go for what you know is right
The world is for your taking
You make your own breaks and
Baby that's a given gift
What you make it
Life's what you make it
So live every moment like it's your last
You wanna never say never
You walk through the wilderness with a laugh
A smile makes everything better
Life's what you make it
Life's what you make it
- lyrics to "Life's what you make it", Amy Diamond.
Parent post is a good one, but just to inform the engineers on this board . . . plenty of people think you're pretty stupid. As tradesmen would say, "book smart" but not practical.
As it happens, I can stroke your ego a bit and say that on average engineers are a good deal smarter than the average tradesman - but the religious belief in the stupidity of engineers is not entirely without merit. Frequently engineers may know how things physically work, but are not familiar with things beyond their narrow specialty - so, for example, a civil engineer may not realize that their perfect design has just violated the fire code, the building code, and the electrical code. Naturally, this can delay things and cause accusations of stupidity all around.
That said, I am heartened by the general tone of the conversation here, and the realization that all of us are idiots to some degree. I would only add that average news reporters, psychologists, and sociologists really are a bit more idiotic than the rest of us. Oh, and a recent survey in the U.S. found that U.S. lawmakers are significantly below average (for the entire population) in their understanding of the law.
and comfort myself with the thoughts like "it's ok, I'm getting paid for this" or "If everyone knew everything I'd be out of job".
Of course if I don't think I'm fairly compensated or even paid at all I get pissed off quite fast :D.
As the island of our knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.
mmmm electrolytes.
On a side note, I swear the title said "How Do You Stay Upbeat Amidst the Idiocky?".
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.
As the island of our knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.
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.My ism, it's full of beliefs.
... even techies.
The bias of tech is that all problems can be solved. When the poblems involve people, and some of those people don't like the proposed solution, it's easy, and simplistic, to start nattering about the "complete idiocy that intelligent, tech-savvy readers often have to deal with....". (Arrogant, too.)
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
I only really started making the mistakes 'real' people do when I had to do things fast - moved from taking an hour to grok what was required to having something demoable in 15 minutes - or talk back in 20 seconds.
So people do not make the mistakes you do given 3 years degree + x years on the job, or who have not coded in 5 years, how would it be otherwise?
The person who never made a mistake never made anything.
Be Free: Free Software Tuition
That's precisely the same thing an auto mechanic does, only with cars instead of people.
Important difference: the doctor has to do everything while the car is still running.
think about the edge of the box. That is where progress happens. An athlete or scholar does not increase the range of his abilities by doing what is easy for him, nor what is impossible. It is the edge of impossibility where we become our best.
With respect to other ays of thinking, you are entirely on target. You can't wish for everyone to think as you do, without making the way you think ... conventional. This is really the box-edge theory applied to human relations. There is no stretch in working exclusively with people like you. There is no point in trying to find validity in the perspectives of fascism or racism. But where you can manage to accommodate a different viewpoint, you've stretched your mind that much more.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Unfortunately, far too many people take an attitude of "if you don't know what I know, you're an idiot". I know quite a number of people who are constantly stressed out, because they expect anyone and everyone to be fully up to speed on everything that they are interested in. Engineers seem to be particularly susceptible to this, because unlike writers, musicians, or artists, we deal with deterministic systems. We design, build, and fix things so that they are reliably predictable. But people aren't reliably predictable, and expecting them to be is going to stress you out.
I am always stressed-out when people in my profession can't seem to grasp what I consider the most basic of concepts and ideas. I don't really think they are an "idiot" pe se, I just can't fathom how they are in this profession (software development) and yet can't seem to grasp new ideas or thought processes. Now, I don't expect people in other professions to "get" software design and development ideas, but, I do expect people in the profession to do so. When they don't, I get REALLY, REALLY stressed out!
Over-the-top Response Guy! Giving "Over-the-Top Responses" since 1970.
Though I'm not 100% in agreement, I'll make a couple more arguments in your favor.
1) Vets also have a different set of budget constraints. My cat doesn't have a $2 million dollar insurance policy.
2) Vets have to take on a different role. They have to play "animal advocate" and drill some sense into people who bought animals they had no business buying.
3) It is socially acceptable to not do everything in our power to save fluffy. Sometimes the best, most humane option is merely to put the poor critter down.
I don't know what this means, but I do know psychologically I'd have a harder time dealing with the bullshit people put their animals through then dealing with what people put kids through. I suspect veterinarians have to develop quite a wall to cope with the shit they deal with.
As to which is smarter. I guess ultimately it depends. Veterinarians cannot specialize in a branch of medicine the way a doctor can. Sure there are probably vets who are really good at "fixing problem X on animal Y", but they are still expected to "fix problem Z on animal A" too. A doctor can specialize in a way where they could remove a tumor in your brain, but probably could never resuscitate you after a heart attack in an ER.
I'll take people doctors, please. I don't buy the idea of euthanasia being a cure for a broken leg.
I've heard that in Canada, vets can make more money as well, as there are less restrictions on them than on human doctors (which are funded under gov't medicare).
I actually have a few friends which work as vets or vet assistants. The job tends to mix the borders between "oooh, cute and cuddly fuzzies" with "oooo, fluid-leaking ripped-up and mangled barely-alive animal."
A friend of mine recently saved a small rodent from heart failure, so they really do work will animals of all types, sizes, and shapes as well. However there are often "specialist" vets that deal primarily with large animals/livestock, etc, too. It's always seemed like an interesting career path to me.
Yes, seems he's missing a comma after power...
Sometimes it is difficult when people ask questions that clearly show their unwillingness of figure something out for themselves. Usually it is the passive aggressive relationship people build up with their office "nerd". Most people know when they ask "how can I" they are really saying "I cannot be bothered to do it for myself".
Can we all say that we are guiltless? Maybe at sometime you have asked a question like "how do you iron a shirt so it comes out good again?".
In the long run, Everybody Dies.
Are you sure?
With the advent of bionics, black market organs, and the capacity to grow replacement organs the wealthy, no matter how stupid, cloistered, and bigoted they are, will be able to live forever.
Oh how great the world would have been if hitler could have lived to lead us into the future, right?
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
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!
So this is why i have trouble getting up in the morning here in georgia.. (the idiocy concentration really IS that bad, in fact it's worse. There's less idiocy at a live american idol performance)
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
The idiots breed, consume, and slaughter one another. When enough of them die off, those who quietly waited out the storm of stupidity can emerge and help rebuild the world. Sadly, as history points out, the idiots rise again. Wash Rinse Repeat.
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-