We, The People - Part 2
Moving on to another type of people... I'm sure you all have someone of this kind at some point in time. Say you are having a conversation with this person. Your conversation comes to a point where you might discuss some statistics.
(TOG ==> The Other Guy)
...
You: "Oh! That was about 10%".
TOG: "No. It was 9.43%".
You: "Yeah... so what I was saying is that ..."
TOG: "No.. No.. didn't you get it. It was 9.43%. Your knowledge is incorrect."
You: "Yeah alright. But the point I'm trying to make is..."
TOG: "Its not a good thing Shri. If you have knowledge about something, it better be precise. About 10% is wrong."
...
Feeling a little bad or maybe humiliated you simple wish you could walk off.
I'm certainly not advocating that you're fine with imprecise knowledge here. All I'm trying to say is that some people are just so "Difficult". Yes, thats right. Difficult. Being finicky about the absolutely minute details is just one quirk of these people.
I remember one guy giving me a hard time about the pronounciation of the word "Mature". The argument in this case was whether "mature" was pronounced as "Match-ure" or "Mchure".
There are so many other instances that one can think of. Being wierd about the food they eat. Finding faults at somethings that we don't even think about. The other day one person started arguing with me about why USA requires any documentation for processing visas :D. His point was, anyone who can buy a ticket should just board a plane and get to the US or any other country.
I sometimes feel these people are sick. Sick as in... not the emphatic "Sssiiiiccckkkkk!!". Just the sick meaning ill. They're scared. They have these notions that if things are not the way they like something bad is going to happen to them :-). So if they say "10%" and not "9.43%", they'll fall down. Or if they mis-pronounce the word "mature", their tongue will be twisted or something like that. Someone somehow has to give them the confidence that they are just as good as anybody else. The world is good place to live in and they don't have to worry too much.
I happened to speak to one of these guys one day and explain to him that being difficult is not good for him. He agreed and then immediately started arguing about how people are bad in this world :-).
These people also always have some glaring shortcomings. I'm not trying to find faults but its just too obvious to miss. Sometimes they're not very well read. So the 10% guy knows all about the particular topic we were discussing. But when we move on to something else, he knows nothing. Sometimes they don't have common sense. So the guy questioning a countries' procedure for granting visas doesn't really know what purpose visas serve. Incidentally, this guy also wasn't well read. He didn't know who Osama Bin Laden was.
Its not that these people are in anyway less capable than the others. I'm sure all of them could achieve the greatest of achievements. But, its just that they are different.
(TOG ==> The Other Guy)
...
You: "Oh! That was about 10%".
TOG: "No. It was 9.43%".
You: "Yeah... so what I was saying is that ..."
TOG: "No.. No.. didn't you get it. It was 9.43%. Your knowledge is incorrect."
You: "Yeah alright. But the point I'm trying to make is..."
TOG: "Its not a good thing Shri. If you have knowledge about something, it better be precise. About 10% is wrong."
...
Feeling a little bad or maybe humiliated you simple wish you could walk off.
I'm certainly not advocating that you're fine with imprecise knowledge here. All I'm trying to say is that some people are just so "Difficult". Yes, thats right. Difficult. Being finicky about the absolutely minute details is just one quirk of these people.
I remember one guy giving me a hard time about the pronounciation of the word "Mature". The argument in this case was whether "mature" was pronounced as "Match-ure" or "Mchure".
There are so many other instances that one can think of. Being wierd about the food they eat. Finding faults at somethings that we don't even think about. The other day one person started arguing with me about why USA requires any documentation for processing visas :D. His point was, anyone who can buy a ticket should just board a plane and get to the US or any other country.
I sometimes feel these people are sick. Sick as in... not the emphatic "Sssiiiiccckkkkk!!". Just the sick meaning ill. They're scared. They have these notions that if things are not the way they like something bad is going to happen to them :-). So if they say "10%" and not "9.43%", they'll fall down. Or if they mis-pronounce the word "mature", their tongue will be twisted or something like that. Someone somehow has to give them the confidence that they are just as good as anybody else. The world is good place to live in and they don't have to worry too much.
I happened to speak to one of these guys one day and explain to him that being difficult is not good for him. He agreed and then immediately started arguing about how people are bad in this world :-).
These people also always have some glaring shortcomings. I'm not trying to find faults but its just too obvious to miss. Sometimes they're not very well read. So the 10% guy knows all about the particular topic we were discussing. But when we move on to something else, he knows nothing. Sometimes they don't have common sense. So the guy questioning a countries' procedure for granting visas doesn't really know what purpose visas serve. Incidentally, this guy also wasn't well read. He didn't know who Osama Bin Laden was.
Its not that these people are in anyway less capable than the others. I'm sure all of them could achieve the greatest of achievements. But, its just that they are different.
posted by Shri at 2:19 PM
2 Comments:
You hit the nail on its head in the last paragraph where you mentioned "Purpose". That is the one thing that distinguishes Opinions or Mindless Ramblings from well thought out assessments and actions.
It is not about 'almost 10' or '9.43', it is about the purpose of the distinction. The reason we find this person 'difficult' is because there is no purpose behind the 9.43. It is being said for the sake of being accurate. The question is: What purpose does being accurate serve in this case? If none, then we make an assessment that he is being difficult. However, if it were purposeful - say, for example, a rocket is being launched in space and it needs only a precise amount of fuel in the jet engines to exit earth's atmosphere (no less, no more... exactly 9.43 mega tonnes or whatever the unit is), then 10 suddenly becomes irrelevant.
Just my 2 cents... :)
- Himanshu
haha, i think i just did that with your slumdog millionare post! ;)
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