At 06:01 PM 6/25/2013, Jameson Quinn wrote:
I suspect it may be a matter of social norms. I grew up listening to
theoretical physicists argue (my mother is one). They love a good
fight, and the kind of language Stephen used here is actually
consistent with a deep underlying respect in that context. I've
certainly also seen contexts where it would be unutterably rude. On
the internet, it's probably best to err on the side of assuming good faith.
That's from the "recipient" perspective.
I went to Cal Tech, and, my first two years there, we all sat with
Richard P. Feynman for physics. We had Linus Pauling for chemistry.
And we talked with each other like very smart, very self-confident,
in-your-face jerks. And we loved it. Don't like it? Who let you in?
(And we were all male, of course, at that time.)
However, most of the world is not like that. I remember making a
self-deprecatory joke. At least I thought it was self-deprecatory, it
pretended to arrogantly think that my wife wouldn't be able to
understand a conversation I was having, on a walk, with a very bright
psychotherapist who was an old friend. I was in the doghouse for
years over that joke.
She was, see, from another planet. Earth.
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