Will, one thing I learned about debating irrational people is that you really don't stand much of a chance of changing their mind so you have to come to terms with that first. Now if there are onlookers, you stand a chance of influencing them by looking like the most rational one in the debate. A good first step is to simply laugh at the irrational idea like it's a joke. Then convey to the person something like "I know you are much too intelligent to believe an argument like that if you understood the basics of...." then make your argument. Make sure your points are short, simple and correct. Like I say, your opponent in the debate shouldn't be your target as much as the onlookers.
Greg On 12/26/06, Will Tomlinson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > So I'm gettin' ready for Christmas breakfast with my family, when my Aunt, > who works as a section chief managing programs for the travel division at > the IRS, launches at me about how bad CF sucks. She knows how much I love CF > and is aware of the things I build with it. > > I'm kinda shocked, didn't expect it. Then she says she's working with a CF > application that's throwing all these errors. She can't stand how bad it > sucks. What shocked me the most was that my aunt, who I look up to so much, > can be so ignorant of basic progamming principles. My first reaction was to > just tell her ANYthing can be written poorly by a *hitty programmer. .net, > PHP, etc. She just shook her head. I couldn't get TOO ugly because we were > literally at the table gettin' ready to eat. lol! It's like, how do you even > START with someone displaying this kinda lack of understanding??? > > I gave her a break for a while and decided to take a different approach. I > sat down with her. She started saying CF sucks. It just sucks! I can't > believe you like it. with a calm voice I said, Aunt Laura, does Java suck? > She said no! I said well, CF is Java! It compiles to Java! If you have a > crappy programmer writing the app, you're gonna have lotsa bugs. I was gonna > get into the fact that she shouldnt even be SEEING errors. I mean, she's > seeing the standard CF errors. > > That's where it ended. Dunno if I got it thru her thick head - I doubt it. > But at least she knows what's running behind CF anyway. > > Hope no one else had such a pleasurable Christmas breakfast! :) > > Will > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create robust enterprise, web RIAs. Upgrade & integrate Adobe Coldfusion MX7 with Flex 2 http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;56760587;14748456;a?http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=LVNU Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:264990 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
