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March 04, 2004
You are on the invidual archive page of Infection control. Click Simon World weblog for the main page.
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Infection control
The problem with rising stupidity levels is two-fold. Firstly is stupidity tends to be a slowly cumulative disease. It begins with a few stupid questions or comments. But these don't just disappear. They get built upon, slowly but surely, layer upon layer. Eventually you reach the point where the mass of stupidity is such it overwhelms common sense. There's a mathematical formula to represent this situation: If (Sum [Stupidity]) > Common Sense What is even more disheartening is when Charles, a 3 year veteran in this job, tells me that these are the same stupid questions he's been dealing with since he started. From the same people. Apparently for many education and learning ends as soon as they enter a corporate environment. At first you think you can deal with it. You can be friendly, trying to help others to understand. You can write lengthy emails, hold long conference calls or even travel to various offices to explain in detail. And you will be asked the same question a week later. Three times. By the same person. Regardless of how and how many times you explain it to them. They cannot help it. They're stupid. The second and more worrying aspect is how infectious stupidity is. No one is immune. It spreads quickly and quietly. If you receive a stupid question early there's a good chance the day will be full of them (like today). Inevitably it sometimes reaches down the phone and infects you too. Your frustration levels rise and silly mistakes creep in. There's nothing you can do. Having enough patience to deal with it all is not enough. Having a sense of humour is vital but not enough. Having a voodoo doll with noose and pins is essential. Alcohol too. posted by Simon on 03.04.04 at 05:08 PM in the
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Comments:
they are like laboroatry animals that never learn.... reach for the treat - zap... reach for the treat - zap... reach for the treat - zap... it goes on for ever... posted by: giles on 03.04.04 at 05:16 PM [permalink]this sounds like the staff at the high school where i work. come to think of it, it sounds like the townspeople in general...especially the part about not being immune. posted by: amber on 03.04.04 at 10:00 PM [permalink]Sounds like a brother I once had. i can't remember how many times I told him not to put the coffee cup between his legs while driving. posted by: paul on 03.05.04 at 06:39 AM [permalink]I understand completely. I work with a group of talented designers. We all, of course, work on MACs. Almost to a person they know nothing about how the thing works. It's like a carpenter not knowing which part of the circular saw to pound nails with. Since I prefered to take the approach of undestanding the tools I make my living with - I get ALL the questions. posted by: Stephen Macklin on 03.05.04 at 09:44 AM [permalink]Why think and learn when you can ask Simon or Charles for the answer. Less work, no hassle. They KNOW doing this task is important to you so you will continue to feed them the answers. The sad part is trying to break this cycle. Try going up the chain of command and see where that gets you. Usually defensive posturing, one or two times where they do it correctly and a few weeks where they do it wrong. Over and over WRONG!Whereupon you get pissed and start feeding them the right answers again. posted by: kennycan on 03.05.04 at 03:11 PM [permalink] |
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