> On Feb 22, 2010, at 3:56 PM, M. Adam Davis wrote:
>
> On Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 5:17 PM, Olin Lathrop <
olin_piclist
KILLspamembedinc.com
> > wrote:
>> M. Adam Davis wrote:
>>> A similar, possibly cliche, quote is, "Make sure everyone you talk
>>> to
>>> is better off for having talked to you."
>>
>> But back here in the real world, this is bad advice as a blanket
>> statement.
>> Once you've decided part of the solution is to get the moron fired,
>> you
>> clearly want him not to be better off after you talk.
>
> Honestly, if he's that bad at his job I can only imagine he'll be
> significantly better off in a different line of work, so as far as I'm
> concerned they would be better off having been told the truth about
> their skills. But you can _generally_ tell them the truth without
> adopting an offensive line of discussion.
>
> Regardless, I don't know the whole thing holds up when applied to the
> piclist. Can you tell with the simple messages people post here as
> newbies that they are truly stupid and should get lost (ie, fired from
> the list)? It's easy enough in a design review, but email messages
> don't communicate enough to tell whether the design is stupid because
> the person is incapable of learning the right way, or the person
> simply lacks the skills and experience to do it the right way but are
> otherwise interested and capable of learning.
>
> I must be thinking about this too much. I'm now travelling down the
> path of, "If people are devices, then they communicate using APIs.
> What are the characteristics of the API, and how to best communicate
> to get the device to perform the intended action, or incorporate the
> information into their memory."
>
> If only life were so simple. Unfortunately no one sticks strictly to
> the english dictionary, which would be a fine standard if people
> didn't color the words and phrases with their own perspective,
> connotations, experience, interpretation, etc.
>
> On the other hand.... hmmm...
>
> How Olin, would you mind publishing your API? If we get everyone to
> do this, then we can generate a translator and end all
> incompatibilites in one fell swoop!
>
> ;-D
>
> -Adam