WTF?

[piranha]

do i sound particularly stupid lately?

Comments

[platonios.livejournal.com]

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

you wouldn't know, you haven't known me that long. :)

[platonios.livejournal.com]

Damn! I'm always late!
Though, just so you know, I feel privileged to have met you...

Offtopic rant: Argh, I jumped to the other side! it's 4am and I'm awake...reading some tutorials on GIS (Geographic Information Systems) hoping I bore myself to sleep...

Seeya

[mayaknife.livejournal.com]

I keep a linear algebra text beside my bed. No matter how bad my insomnia is, three pages of that and my eyes will start to droop.

insomnia tips

[platonios.livejournal.com]

[ebourland.livejournal.com]

???

Confused.

[jodawi.livejournal.com]

n

[brooksmoses]

What sort of lately?

Last week or so, you haven't said enough that I feel like I've got a sample size, but I haven't noticed anything weird.

Last few months: No, you seem like your usual intelligent-poisson self as best I can tell. Why?

getting more stupid

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

over ... time, i guess. i know i've been feeling more and more stupid over the last decade or so, and i was wondering whether it was possibly at the level now where people who've known me for longer than that think that i need advice of the kind that one gives to people without sufficent clue about really basic things. you know, if i just wrote a chatty thing like "right now i wonder why my laptop is not booting into linux" and they replied "have you checked whether the battery needs recharging" -- note that i didn't actually even ask for advice, i was just yammering out loud.

i know my LJ is much more banal than my usenet posts ever were, but i thought i was still shy of coming across like a clueless git who doesn't even know to check whether zir computer has power.

Re: getting more stupid

[platonios.livejournal.com]

Re: getting more stupid

[daev.livejournal.com]

Actually your posts now make you sound far more musingly thoughtful than the stuff you were writing when I first knew you. You used to be kinda flippant on PLATO. (Funny as hell, though.)

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

Not that I'd noticed. This particular post, however, matches my mental model of you better if I imagine it as a snarky reply to some net idiot.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i posted it in lieu of the first version in direct response, which was considerably more snarky. :)

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

I feel considerably relieved (having read downthread).

[janetmk.livejournal.com]

no

[crazed-lynn.livejournal.com]

Nope. Terse, yes; stupid, no.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

terse! terse is good! :)

[boxofdelights]

Er, no.

Have you been getting more than your share of unsolicited condescending useless advice lately?

Re: WTF

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

yes, that (well, not entirely useless, just unsolicited and condescending). and on the level of "are you sure it's plugged in" from people who've known me for years online, who should know i am clued about the stuff they're giving me advice about. oh, and without me actually having asked for advice.

i know i have been getting more stupid over the last decade, and my LJ is terribly banal. i just didn't think it was that bad.

Re: WTF

[dr-brat.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it's not meant as condescending but as "I didn't know this until someone told me and you perhaps know it, but it seems like you don't, so I'll mention it?"

I think the "should know me well enough to know better" thing can be tricky. But then again, I am the kind who would need someone to suggest that I check the battery because I tend to overlook details like that, so I'd be likely to suggest it to someone else, not being condescending, but because I would have needed to be reminded.

[redbird]

Not to me. What prompts this?

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

*points upward in the comment thread*.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

Not that I've noticed.

Re: WTF?

[eagle]

Nope, not to me.

[charlottezweb.livejournal.com]

Heh. I just took over a job from someone with whom I've been v. good friends for about 15 years. As part of the transition and training, she explained to me the difference between the metered mail and stamped mail and their respective postal boxes. Um, thanks. Cause for the last 15 years, you've been thinking I was an idiot?

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

That just sounds like here-is-the-standard-training. Better to cover everything so that the trainee doesn't have to ask stupid questions if they happen not to have run across something before.

[charlottezweb.livejournal.com]

Yeah, she's been my best friend from ages 20 to 36--I've been a working professional for most of that time--while I could understand her explaining the difference to a stranger, explaining it to me was ridiculous. At least I got to mock her and then collect a drink.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

"Do I look like a moron?"

"Only if someone looks at you with their moron eyes!"

[prairierabbit.livejournal.com]

No. Sympathies re downthread. That could be very annoying. Perhaps they've just been surrounded by the clueless lately, and aren't filtering for audience?