From: Dossy (dossy@panoptic.com)
Date: Thu Jan 03 2002 - 21:37:46 MST
On 2002.01.03, Robert J. Bradbury <bradbury@aeiveos.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 3 Jan 2002, Dossy wrote:
> > [...] the person using the profanities is so flustered that they
> > can't reason any longer,
>
> Hmmm.... Once upon a time I was a programmer. And programmers
> clearly are aware that from time to time they have to struggle
> with their computers. Does this mean when I say "f...ing computer"
> or "f...ing compiler" or "f...ing idiots" that didn't write
> the unit tests to make sure that the compiler conformed to the
> bloody specification or "blasted f...ing idiots" that didn't
> write the specification unambigiously, that I'm incapable of
> reason and have lost the argument? I rarely get a response
> so I must now assume they have been following this basic approach.
When you get to the point in your frustration that you begin
swearing at an inanimate object, yes, you've lost control.
You are flustered to the point where you have stopped reasoning,
which is why you're expressing anger at an inanimate object,
that can't be changed by simple verbal expression of anger
towards it. Any reasonable person can see that. :-)
I didn't say that just because you swear that you're incapable
of reason. What I said was, when you (or anyone for that
matter) gets to the point when all they can manage is swearing,
then they have exhuasted their mental fortitude and they
are on "mental auto-pilot" letting their baser instincts
govern their pattern of speech. It's a clear sign that
they're mentally exhausted of reasonable things to do or
say.
As a programmer (today), when I start to get to that point,
I get up, go outside, smoke a cigarette or two, and let my
brain recuperate. I come back inside, refreshed, and I
usually solve whatever problem I was facing fairly quickly
and simply. Yet another reason why I will continue to
smoke, regardless of the anti-smoking propaganda.
> Its like the hundred years war all over again. I wonder when the
> various factions sides will finally get it that neither side can win.
Oh, sadly, email flamewars are wars of attrition. Indeed, nobody
wins, but there comes a point when there is "one man left standing."
Will that one man please turn the lights off before they leave?
-- Dossy
--
Dossy Shiobara mail: dossy@panoptic.com
Panoptic Computer Network web: http://www.panoptic.com/
"He realized the fastest way to change is to laugh at your own
folly -- then you can let go and quickly move on." (p. 70)
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