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  • #16
    One of my favorite teachers, lo, these many years ago, explained it this way:

    Ignorance is when you haven't had an opportunity to learn.

    Stupidity is when you have had the opportunity, but refused to take it.
    When you start at zero, everything's progress.

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    • #17
      "There may not be any stupid questions, but there are tons of inquisitive morons." -one of my old uni profs I'm not sure where he got it from though
      Don’t worry about what I’m up to. Worry about why you are worried about what I’m up to.

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      • #18
        One big problem with defining stupid as "should have learned" is that what's obvious, or easy to understand, for one person, is not so for another. As an example, I'm on the autistic spectrum -- some social signals are not obvious to me, and my attention patterns do not match the "standard model".

        Another, overlapping, is that "teaching" someone requires more than uttering words at them. Some people may have authority, but not credibility -- e.g., when the office bully tells you "this is how things work around here".
        And some lessons require a background knowledge, or abilities, which may not be universal -- e.g., I have a computer background, not everyone does.

        If sat my boss in front of our Square station and tried to tell him "oh, it's easy, you just choose the credit screen, enter the price and and click on the accept button" -- well, the first problem would be that he doesn't see so good, or have full control of his hands. Then there'd be the issue that he's not going to be able to follow the modal behavior of the Square, because that's only "intuitive" once you've been trained into that intuition. Let alone his technophobia, which would shutting down his higher faculties....

        If our positions were reversed, with me being his boss, I could perhaps tell him "you've gotta learn this or you're fired" -- and then I the technocratic manager, would be firing somebody who has both social abilities and in-field knowledge (literature and the book business) that flatly dwarfs mine, solely because he couldn't do my thing as well as his own. Who's the stupid one here?

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        • #19
          Quoth Mental_Mouse View Post
          One big problem with defining stupid as "should have learned" is that what's obvious, or easy to understand, for one person, is not so for another.
          Agreed. That's why I see it as a choice – an active refusal to learn by those who can very easily do so.
          Some people may have authority, but not credibility -- e.g., when the office bully tells you "this is how things work around here".
          I used to have a boss who literally told me "I don't pay you to think" . . . at an IT position (mostly tech support). I really wish I could have told him that yes, an important part of my job is literally to think.
          "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
          "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
          "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
          "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
          "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
          "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
          Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
          "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

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          • #20
            Quoth EricKei View Post
            Agreed. That's why I see it as a choice – an active refusal to learn by those who can very easily do so.
            The problem is, it's not so easy to tell whether someone won't learn, or can't. The classic here is "oh, they won't look me in the eyes, obviously they're being shifty liars..." -- when both cultures and conditions can make it very difficult for someone to do that, and it's not just a matter of telling them what to do.

            I used to have a boss who literally told me "I don't pay you to think" . . . at an IT position (mostly tech support). I really wish I could have told him that yes, an important part of my job is literally to think.
            I'd consider that, right there, an abusive job and a dysfunctional IT department.

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            • #21
              It was indeed abusive (and, thankfully, long since history), and I WAS the IT department Small place.
              "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
              "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
              "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
              "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
              "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
              "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
              Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
              "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

              Comment

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