If you didn’t write a thesis then shut up!
Do you know what I am sick of? Advice. I’m not talking about that nice little friendly advice that someone who is really close to you and has the permission to speak into your life gives. I’m talking about the, “I have a tiny bit of knowledge on this subject so I am going to tell you everything you shoud do, that I didn’t do, or never intended to do, but you should do it because I’m telling you to.” Oh and by the way “this is not a suggestion it’s a list of instructions so if you don’t do exactly what I am telling you then I will look disaprovingly down my nose at you, or worse, will say I told you so when it all goes south!”
My most recent beef is people telling me how to save water/energy. I know it’s a hot topic, but unless you have a compost toilet and bathe in the bird bath, then I don’t want to hear from you. Just because you are up one level on your water saving ideas does not give you the right to water bash me. You do it, and keep it to yourself!
The other thing that is a hot topic for us is - moving and building. Every man and his dog who has ever considered or in fact does live in a house seems to know so much more about it than me and wants to give me their advice. I don’t remember asking! If one more person says “gee it’s a hard road building” I am not going to be responsible for where I point my nail gun! I don’t mind if people tell me their stories just for interest sake, I am interested. But don’t expect me to listen and do as you say……
Am I being too harsh? Do these people have good intentions or are they just full of their own importance??
Do you have any stories of when someone gave you advice for which they knew nothing about?
GW
July 2nd, 2007 at 11:13 am
There is always the great danger of giving ‘helpful’ instructions to your wife as she gives birth to one of your children. I am not that silly but I do remember one guy telling me he was surprised at his wife’s attitiude toward him when he suggested she remember what thay had learnt at birth classes. He probably shouldn’t have asked her if he could go check the cricket score while she was in the middle of labour.
July 2nd, 2007 at 6:33 pm
A good example of someone giving advice on a topic they know nothing about! A man tried to tell me once that breast feeding wasn’t that hard and he can’t believe people give up. I told him that it didn’t hurt that much when men got kicked in the………
July 4th, 2007 at 8:04 am
2 schools of thought here. Whilst I agree, receiving “formal” info from some self professed expert is exasperating, this is not to be confused with public exploration & debate. For example, taking your angst about the current state of affairs with water/energy saving & the advice that comes with that, my stance is opposite to yours. It seems to be a subject that as a community, we are slow in gathering & advancing our knowledge base. I would have thought that any public discussion whether well informed or not would be useful. The mere fact that we are talking about it at all is something that I find encouraging. It can be like digging for gold; you might dig & dig with no result but suddenly you uncover something that is pure gold. But you don’t find it unless you dig.
My particular beef with knowledge sharing is people that try to impress you with knowledge about something that they clearly know very little about. I had to sit through a 4 hour workshop last week on transport fatigue management. The lecturer was one sleazy individual who ended his last workshop (risk management) by showing 2 porno clips. (go figure). He kept making extravagant claims about things that clearly he only had a little bit of knowledge about. The end result was that during a fatigue management workshop, it took everything in my power to stay awake. (Maybe that was his key strategy!!)
MM
July 11th, 2007 at 9:33 am
I think what you’re talking about Sweetums is a certain domineering personality type who are so ridiculously self confident they look at you and assume you must know nothing.
There is a certain person in one of my classes who is constantly dominating the discussion, speaking over the teacher and offering advice to everyone rather than asking questions, as is what I believe to be the definition of a ’student’. It bugged me so much one day that I actually said to him “if you know all this stuff, what are you doing here?” The response was “I need a degree”. In other words, he already knows everything, he just wants to be qualified to get on everyone’s nerves!
This is a pet peev for me too, although I’m sure I’ve been guilty of doing it myself on occasion. I really try to be conscious of it, though, because it bugs me so much.
Remember, assuming makes an ass out of u and me! Ha ha ha. Or in Jeff’s words, assumption is the mother of all stuff ups. Some advice to know-it-all’s: Give people the benefit of the doubt that they actually do have a brain before you open your mouth!
July 12th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Good one Mikey. But if you’re a know it all, isn’t that the one thing that you don’t know - that you are one? I think I am guilty of it too. I try not too as well.