I realize I may get into a bit of trouble by posting this, and that it doesn't belong in EE, but I figured I'd reach the same people by tagging it the same way. On Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 9:43 PM, William "Chops" Westfield wrote: > On Oct 14, 2011, at 12:01 PM, Dave Tweed wrote: > > > Are we as a society gradually losing this level of technical skill? > > Probably. People can't write near-perfect fortran on a coding pad, > suitable to be handed off to a cardpunch operator, either. > > What's the world coming to! > I totally agree with you, William. But allow me to raise this point: I love how witty, evasive, sarcastic attacks are acceptable here, while direct, yet somewhat linguistically unpleasant remarks are frowned upon. I don't understand the logic. Ex: Haha, hey man, are you an engineer or a /hacker/? Ex: That's not how an /engineer/ would do it. Ex. Some asinine comment about mindset. All of the above seem to be totally acceptable here, yet they are all attacks on one another. But what about: Ex: Screw you, dude, that mindset is totally right because of these reasons [etc.]. Ex: Bite me, these parts suck because of this and this and etc... Ex: Hey these parts are awesome man, fuck you. They are good because of [etc.]. Are totally unacceptable? I'm confused. Being pleasant to one another isn't about phrasing something in a sweet ton= e yet hiding an attack in it. It's about actually being nice and respectful o= f each other's opinions. Am I right? How about: A "Hi, I believe that these parts are not very useful because of [etc.]. B "That's cool man. I can understand how that may be so in certain situations. However, I find them to be wonderful because of [etc.]. What difference does it make if I were to say "fuck you" or if I were to attack someone else's engineering skill and compare them to script kiddies based on their opinion of a certain part? (just an example, that's the firs= t one that came to mind, but there are plenty more). The answer: not much of = a difference, but at least I'm not a pussy that needs to hide behind some evasive phrasing. In either case, a buddy and I were at a bar and a few beers later, we somehow arrived at the discussion about how he noticed that in the USA and Canada, people get angry and defensive over arguments and things they don't agree on, whereas in other places (that he'd been to) such as Germany, disagreements are conveyed very respectfully, with facts/opinions where bot= h parties have a meaningful discussion where everyone learns and takes away something. A "Oh I didn't realize that! I guess these parts /can/ be very useful in those situations. I'll check em out. Thanks!" B "No problem man, I can understand that it can get frustrating sometimes because of [etc]." I apologize if I offended anyone as that was not my intent as I have much respect for all of you as fellow human beings and as engineers (that's why = I come here), but I think it would be better if we could all stop hiding little attacks and insults behind sweet cherry-topped phrasing. This happen= s WAY too often. Also, sorry for the disorganization of this post, but I'm really really hungry and just about to take off for a Micky D's run :) --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .