Doug Comer: How to Insult a Computer Scientist

Post by stcredzero » Sat, Jan 17, 2009, 2:39 PM UTC

sofal wrote: post #17

stcredzero wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

M = Master's student P = PhD candidate M discovers P is wrong and says why. P realizes his mistake and admits it like any honest academic would. M keeps on going on like P is sticking to his guns. P relents again, embarassed, since sticking to his guns would be anathema to his being. M keeps on going on like P is sticking to his guns. P tries harder to make it clear that he's relenting. M keeps on going on like P is…

Ah, okay. It was just the last sentence that threw me for a loop: "Never have I seen someone so distressed at being told he was right." From the anecdote I understood that the PhD candidate was being told he was wrong. Anyway, I promise I'm not a troll, at least not on purpose.

It's a bit subtler than that, even. The M doesn't tell P that he's wrong, he says why he's wrong. He never comes out and says P is wrong, he just lets everyone around "get it." P gets it too, and tries to back off. M keeps spinning the illusion that P is sticking to his guns.

I never realized how evil M was until I thought about it again.

Post by Xichekolas » Sat, Jan 17, 2009, 5:57 PM UTC

Xichekolas wrote: post #18

stcredzero wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

M = Master's student P = PhD candidate M discovers P is wrong and says why. P realizes his mistake and admits it like any honest academic would. M keeps on going on like P is sticking to his guns. P relents again, embarassed, since sticking to his guns would be anathema to his being. M keeps on going on like P is sticking to his guns. P tries harder to make it clear that he's relenting. M keeps on going on like P is…

I'm upmodding you because that was an incredibly clear and concise way to relay a conversation between two people in the third person. Much better than: "And he was like 'blah blah' and then she was like 'bleh bleh' and then he replied 'blih blih.'" I'm going to make an effort to use the 'assign letters to people' approach next time I try to say something like that.

Hmm... to my downmodders... I wasn't trolling... I actually appreciated the elegance of explaining a conversation that way.

Re: Doug Comer: How to Insult a Computer Scientist

Re: Doug Comer: How to Insult a Computer Scientist