virus: Listening is more important than Talking

Tim Rhodes (proftim@speakeasy.org)
Thu, 11 Mar 1999 21:05:27 -0800 (PST)

On Thu, 11 Mar 1999, carlw wrote:

> A very transparent response to Tim's comments and questions. I don't think I
> was pleading, and don't think I have any hang-ups to glorify. What is your
> problem? You cannot understand that somebody doesn't feel the need to play
> games and hide behind multiple false projections?

Spoken like a true Objectivist! Only I suspect you, unlike many, _can_ understand that Ayn Rand wrote fiction--which is by definition a purposeful and inheirantly false form of projection that is only employed by neo-cheaters and mystics. And that you can see the irony and intent in that as well.

>I am sure there are adult-english literacy classes in your area!

Since you raised the topic of learning and language, let's talk about message formatting for a moment, shall we? The listowner has mentioned repeatedly, and once again quite recently, that posters should only repeat the relevant text in their replies. This is simply a common courtesy to the others on the list, who don't need to see the same message they just read repeated in its entirely again and saves bandwidth for everyone involved.

You may note that those who pay attention to the culture of the lists they are involved in, quicky learn how to present their thoughts effectively and in a way that is easy read by the others on the list (and without to much excess clutter). Whereas others seem never to understand that the way they construct their posts--the medium in which they house their message, as it were--has a profound effect on how their words are recieved. The second group blithly continues to speak without first listening hard and paying attention to the dialect being used in the room.

Some people might be quick to make assumptions about the personalities of those in the former group as compaired to those in the later, but this would be a mistake. Each mind is a "black box" and at best we can only make observations about the manifest behavior of those in each group.

And at the same time, hope that the second group will eventually learn to pay more attention to the world around them if they truly wish to make an impact on it.

-Prof. Tim