From: Yedidya Weil (yedweil@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Oct 20 2002 - 08:55:03 MDT
--- Michael Roy Ames <michaelroyames@hotmail.com>
wrote:
> Yedidya,
>
> You wrote:
>
> > Also, I suggest you (Gordon) adopt a less cocksure
> > attitude.
>
> This is almost always good advice (Gordon! ;), but
> not always. If you're right,
> you're right. There is no point softening it, that
> just wastes time and
> complicates discussion.
Soft is good. Our perceptions do not reflect reality
%100. Our language is imprecise. We have emotions
which we did not choose to have; we do not react only
to the content of a message, rather to both the
content and the style. Therefore there is a point to
softening styles of speech, as well as styles of
cognition.
>
> > As in when seeing a seeming error on
> > another's part, trying to see what they really
> mean
> > instead of assuming they are simply incorrect.
>
> This is poor advice. One should judge posters on
> what they actually post, not
> what you *think* they posted, or what they *seemed*
> to post.
One shouldn't judge posters at all, one should just
strive try to clarify views and improve understanding.
Such as "if you meant what you seem to have meant, X,"
(statement X in as clear terms as Responder can
manage), " then this seems to me incorrect, for the
following reasons...".
Yedidya
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