>> How can one group of humans be so stupid? It boggles my mind! I mean,
>> hell, you *know* it's bad when the friggin' expert tells you to use
>> something else...
>
> I dunno. Maybe they think that they are as much experts as the experts.
>
> There's a much discussed study on incompetency drifting around and it's
> results, while a little scientifically questionable, show that the less 
> you
> know about a subject, the more you believe you know and the less you 
> believe
> other people know. Conversly, the more you know, the less you believe you
> know and the more you believe that others know. It actually makes a bit of
> sense when you think about it.
>
> Don't have it handy. Maybe someone has a link.
>
>> People scare me. :-(
>
> Yup. Me too.
>
> I had a bunch of business people at my desk on friday telling me how to 
> run
> my server. I doubt they'd ever seen a database server in their lives
>
> (full story - I took the server partially offline during lunch for 3 min 
> to
> do an emergency clear of a system cache to prevent a likely repeated 10-15
> min loss of service later in the day. From the way they acted, you'd think
> I'd taken it offline for an hour or 2 at peak business time.)

I was reading a technical book on storyline scripting for games and about
chapter 5 the author starts saying how great Tarrot cards are... chapter 6 
is
probably about blood sacrifice of 30yr old virgin nerds to Bill Gates god of 
MS.

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Gail Shaw wrote:
> Don't have it handy. Maybe someone has a link.

It sounds like you're talking about the "Unskilled and Unaware of It" paper:

http://www.apa.org/journals/features/psp7761121.pdf

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"Kevin Wampler" <wampler+pov### [at] uwashingtonedu> wrote in message
news:471e8e28@news.povray.org...
> Gail Shaw wrote:
> > Don't have it handy. Maybe someone has a link.
>
> It sounds like you're talking about the "Unskilled and Unaware of It"
paper:
>
> http://www.apa.org/journals/features/psp7761121.pdf

Yup. Thanks

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Gail Shaw wrote:

>> How can one group of humans be so stupid? It boggles my mind! I mean,
>> hell, you *know* it's bad when the friggin' expert tells you to use
>> something else...
> 
> I dunno. Maybe they think that they are as much experts as the experts.

Perhaps. I *often* wonder what's so damn hard about rocket science...

> There's a much discussed study on incompetency drifting around and it's
> results, while a little scientifically questionable, show that the less you
> know about a subject, the more you believe you know and the less you believe
> other people know. Conversly, the more you know, the less you believe you
> know and the more you believe that others know. It actually makes a bit of
> sense when you think about it.

Wasn't it So Greats who said "The greatest knowledge is in knowing that 
you know nothing".

There's a poster on our lab wall that reads "Everything is easy for the 
man who doesn't have to actually do it".

> Don't have it handy. Maybe someone has a link.

It's already been posted here several times [in all the years I've been 
lurkin here].

> I had a bunch of business people at my desk on friday telling me how to run
> my server. I doubt they'd ever seen a database server in their lives
> 
> (full story - I took the server partially offline during lunch for 3 min to
> do an emergency clear of a system cache to prevent a likely repeated 10-15
> min loss of service later in the day. From the way they acted, you'd think
> I'd taken it offline for an hour or 2 at peak business time.)

Yeah, that sounds normal.

If the computers run flawlessly for 3 years, nobody gives a ****. If the 
computers develop one tiny flaw, suddenly everybody hates you. 
Seriously, running computers is an utterly thankless task, and one I 
hope to get out of somebody.

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"Orchid XP v7" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
news:471f829b$1@news.povray.org...
> Gail Shaw wrote:
>
> >> How can one group of humans be so stupid? It boggles my mind! I mean,
> >> hell, you *know* it's bad when the friggin' expert tells you to use
> >> something else...
> >
> > I dunno. Maybe they think that they are as much experts as the experts.
>
> Perhaps. I *often* wonder what's so damn hard about rocket science...

Having done physics at university level, a hell of a lot, mostly around the
details. *g*

> If the computers run flawlessly for 3 years, nobody gives a ****. If the
> computers develop one tiny flaw, suddenly everybody hates you.

It's not that they hated me that was irritating. That I expect. It's one
reason my phone is permanently not working (read, cable removed) ever since
someone gave the dealers my direct line.

What bugged me was that they were telling me, in detail, how to fix the
problem with the server. The problem that I'd spent close on a week
researching and analysing to get to the bottom of. At the time there were 4
advanced SQL books on my desk, all open. There were also about 6 print outs
of web pages with notes all over them.

And they're telling me how to fix the problem they learned about 5 min
earlier. *sigh* And that they weren't listening to a word I said.

Post a reply to this message

Gail Shaw wrote:

>> Perhaps. I *often* wonder what's so damn hard about rocket science...
> 
> Having done physics at university level, a hell of a lot, mostly around the
> details. *g*

You point the rocket at the sky. You propell it. As long as it goes in a 
straigh line rather than some other trajectory, you're golden. 
(Admittedly, if you were trying to "hit" something other than just the 
sky, that would be moderately harder...)

Now brain surgery... *that* sounds hard!

> What bugged me was that they were telling me, in detail, how to fix the
> problem with the server.

> And they're telling me how to fix the problem they learned about 5 min
> earlier. *sigh* And that they weren't listening to a word I said.

As Terry Wogan frequently laments, "everyone's an expert"...

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Gail Shaw wrote:

> And they're telling me how to fix the problem they learned about 5 min
> earlier. *sigh* And that they weren't listening to a word I said.

I just finished replacing 4 old PCs today.

The old machines:

   AMD K6-II, 500 MHz
   128 MB RAM
   S3 Trio3D/2X graphics
   Windoze NT 4.0 Service Pack 6a

The replacement machines:

   AMD Athlon X2 4000+, 2.11 GHz
   1,024 MB RAM
   nVidia GeForce 6100 (I'm not kidding!)
   Windoze XP Service Pack 2

And where all the users delighted? No. Obviously, no. One person 
remarked that logging in to some web app is still slow as hell. (Gee, 
could that be because we have a 2 mbit/sec Internet link shared between 
50 PCs and no web proxy?) Another person complained that they wanted 
newer monitors. And somebody else complained about how long it took to 
log in. (This is likely to be related to their roaming profile. It is in 
excess of 700 MB in size, after all...)

I spend years trying to get my hands on the money to upgrade a tiny 
handful of PCs, and this is the thanks I get. I expected as much...

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"Orchid XP v7" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
news:471fa866$1@news.povray.org...

>
> You point the rocket at the sky. You propell it.

And as long as the fuel mixture doesn't burn irreguarly, or blow up on the
pad

> As long as it goes in a
> straigh line rather than some other trajectory, you're golden.

Now there's the hard part. Rockets in space where there are no atmospheric
effects are easier than in an atmosphere

> (Admittedly, if you were trying to "hit" something other than just the
> sky, that would be moderately harder...)

Why don't you try it. Build a small rocket and take it out to a nearby moor
to test fly.

Actually, have a look round the net. I know there are amature rocket
enthusiasts scattered round the world. Might be a group near you. If you're
interested in that kinda thing, that it.

>
> As Terry Wogan frequently laments, "everyone's an expert"...

Tell me about it.

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Gail Shaw wrote:

>> As Terry Wogan frequently laments, "everyone's an expert"...
> 
> Tell me about it.

Well.... ;-)

Humans suffer from a scientifically verified phenominon known as 
"confirmation bais". This was stated quite a lot earlier by a guy with 
the improbable name "Sir Francis Bacon". He put it thus:

"quod enim mavult homo verum esse, id poteus credit"

And let's face it, who wants to think they're completely ignorant of 
something? Nobody! So everybody *wants* to be an expert, and are thus 
easily able to delude themselves that they *are* an expert!

(cf. the emperor's magical suit...)

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On Wed, 24 Oct 2007 18:36:32 +0100, Orchid XP v7 wrote:

> If the computers run flawlessly for 3 years, nobody gives a ****. If the
> computers develop one tiny flaw, suddenly everybody hates you.
> Seriously, running computers is an utterly thankless task, and one I
> hope to get out of somebody.

IME it's always been that way - you're doing your job right if nobody 
knows you're there...

Jim

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