Unsolved Mystery Book4 Why now, Elaine?

[wardenferry419]

I work in customer service and the level of stupidity I deal with daily is staggering. I am often surprised that some of our customers haven't drown themselves while drinking a glass of water.

[Arjan]

I work in customer service and the level of stupidity I deal with daily is staggering. I am often surprised that some of our customers haven't drown themselves while drinking a glass of water.

Most of them are probably just stupid but some of them are relatively intelligent in what they do for a living, they just don't want to think too much about your product, it should just work. I have met intelligent people who just can not do math. You try to explain and they loose their temper, guess the answer without following the steps and so on..

I think someone just told them early on that it was too complicated for them and they never put the effort and the patience into it. For some things you need to think in a certain way.

[wardenferry419]

Some behavior I can chalk up to general indifference... but, pulling a door handle at 8:45am when the door sign ( which has not changed in over 10 years) says we open at 9:30 and the neon CLOSED light is on. Or thinking half off of 4.99 is $2. And, these are people that come to the store at least once a week.

[jonas]

Most of them are probably just stupid but some of them are relatively intelligent in what they do for a living, they just don't want to think too much about your product, it should just work. I have met intelligent people who just can not do math. You try to explain and they loose their temper, guess the answer without following the steps and so on..

I think someone just told them early on that it was too complicated for them and they never put the effort and the patience into it. For some things you need to think in a certain way.

B to the mutha F'n I.N.G.O!
It's cool to have barriers, it's not cool not to understand that you have said barriers or that others have their own.

[Arjan]

Some behavior I can chalk up to general indifference... but, pulling a door handle at 8:45am when the door sign ( which has not changed in over 10 years) says we open at 9:30 and the neon CLOSED light is on. Or thinking half off of 4.99 is $2. And, these are people that come to the store at least once a week.

Ah the wishfull thinking fallacy. They just want the shop to be open because they took some time getting there and told themself the shop was open before they started their journey. Admitting the shop is closed means admitting their effort was for nothing and maybe even admitting some stupidity. Not losing face is more important than logical thinking anyway.

And of course 5/2=2 if you have to pay for something otherwise it is 3. Real stupidity is when it works against you. :-)

[Arjan]

B to the mutha F'n I.N.G.O!

I believe I have some barriere here.

It's cool to have barriers, it's not cool not to understand that you have said barriers or that others have their own.

It can be easier to see other peoples barriers than your own.

[forumghost]

Some behavior I can chalk up to general indifference... but, pulling a door handle at 8:45am when the door sign ( which has not changed in over 10 years) says we open at 9:30 and the neon CLOSED light is on. Or thinking half off of 4.99 is $2. And, these are people that come to the store at least once a week.

Not that bad. I've known people to come down to my work before the store opens, come in and flip the sign, and sit down expecting to be served 30 min early because "We're here so you have to be open now".

Although that's more a case of them being Assholes then idiots

[wardenferry419]

Ah the wishfull thinking fallacy. They just want the shop to be open because they took some time getting there and told themself the shop was open before they started their journey. Admitting the shop is closed means admitting their effort was for nothing and maybe even admitting some stupidity. Not losing face is more important than logical thinking anyway.

And of course 5/2=2 if you have to pay for something otherwise it is 3. Real stupidity is when it works against you. :-)

I have to disagree with you here. I expect to lose face and am prepared to lose face when I act in an incorrect or idiotic manner. I welcome more logic in my life. There is either shortage of accountability or I am getting old. LOL

[jonas]

I believe I have some barriere here.It can be easier to see other peoples barriers than your own.

Sure, but easy to remember everybody has some. Finding things is so much easier if you assume there's something to find... or at least don't remain in blissful ignorance to it.

[Arjan]

I have to disagree with you here. I expect to lose face and am prepared to lose face when I act in an incorrect or idiotic manner. I welcome more logic in my life. There is either shortage of accountability or I am getting old. LOL

Only if you admit to yourself and others you are acting in a idiotic manner. The trick is to act so sincere and convincingly that the other party thinks he is wrong. It helps if you believe it yourself so really convincing lying starts with lying to yourself.

So never admit you did something wrong even if all evidence stacks against you.

It is related to what a colleague once said to me at work decades ago when I was young and innocent. Never admit you do not know something or can not do something, just try to figure it out on the fly. I assime it was a joke but I am not quite sure.

It actually has a sound evolutionary basis. It is not about being right but about being put in the right. That is why power can let you get away with all sorts of stupid statements and reality won’t always catch up with you. Even worse repeating stupidity shows loyalty. Sometimes stupidity is not about logic but about power. If you sincerely believe in someone elses stupidity you show great loyalty.

Or more generally how will stupidity help someone to survive and prosper in the short term? Even at the cost of everyone else, science, logic, mental health and survival of the human species in the long run.

Even worse in a magical universe when the powerful can make their stupidity true.

[jonas]

Stupid is as stupid does.

[Arjan]

That way you do not have to think about why stupidity persists even with intelligent people.

[wardenferry419]

Only if you admit to yourself and others you are acting in a idiotic manner. The trick is to act so sincere and convincingly that the other party thinks he is wrong. It helps if you believe it yourself so really convincing lying starts with lying to yourself.

So never admit you did something wrong even if all evidence stacks against you.

It is related to what a colleague once said to me at work decades ago when I was young and innocent. Never admit you do not know something or can not do something, just try to figure it out on the fly. I assime it was a joke but I am not quite sure.

It actually has a sound evolutionary basis. It is not about being right but about being put in the right. That is why power can let you get away with all sorts of stupid statements and reality won’t always catch up with you. Even worse repeating stupidity shows loyalty. Sometimes stupidity is not about logic but about power. If you sincerely believe in someone elses stupidity you show great loyalty.

Or more generally how will stupidity help someone to survive and prosper in the short term? Even at the cost of everyone else, science, logic, mental health and survival of the human species in the long run.

Even worse in a magical universe when the powerful can make their stupidity true.

I can't tell if you are pulling my leg or making my cynicism seem mild.

[Arjan]

I can't tell if you are pulling my leg or making my cynicism seem mild.

Just from random search:

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/monique-caissie/boss-admit-wrong_b_10633974.html

Never apologise, it only makes you unhappy:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/people-who-never-apologize-are-probably-happier-than-you-12584567/

These are all mechanisms that happen in real life. How often you think it happens is an indication of your level of cynisism.

[Kindler]

I work in customer service and the level of stupidity I deal with daily is staggering. I am often surprised that some of our customers haven't drown themselves while drinking a glass of water.

Used to work in low-level IT back in the day. The number of times I've heard, "My laptop/computer/discman/et cetera isn't working, FIX IT," was staggering. The number of times my response was "You have to turn it on first," was in far greater numbers than you might think. Legitimately, without exaggeration, I can tell you that approximately 70% of all issues were related to the fact that these people simply did not turn their devices on. Most of them turned red and got embarrassed, but enough of them were extremely angry with me, as though their lack of thought was my fault (though I recognized then and now that they felt dumb and just wanted to blame me). Left the industry about a year after college, when cell phones were becoming a popular thing, specifically because I knew that it was just going to create a new kind of dumb customer, and I'd had enough.

But yes, I've also experienced people trying to open the doors when we were closed, calling before or after posted hours, pushing on a pull door, and a whole bunch of other stuff. When I was freelancing as a writer/editor, price negotiations were fun, because I charged by the word. You would be stunned at the number of people violently angry that $0.05/word for 10,000 words is $500 and not $50, even after I had explicitly explained the math down to the middle school level (I drew one guy a sarcastic picture, with bunches of twenty words equaling a dollar, then adding groups until I hit the word count of the document, with each group clearly numbered; he still didn't get it).

As for Elaine, I don't think it's safe to assume stupidity where she's concerned. She lived with the Summer Fae for a long time, and while it's not as treacherous as Winter, I think assuming that survival requires quite a bit more savvy than you'd think. Look no further than her manipulations in Summer Knight, up to and including her false flight out of town, knowing Harry would chase after her.