Subscribe to
Posts
Comments
NSLog(); Header Image

You Don’t Know Who You’re Talking To

I think it's funny when people don't know with whom they're discussing a topic. For instance, someone talking about the creator's intent when creating the Objective-C language contradicts something Brad Cox says on a newsgroup in the same discussion. That'd be a bad thing to do, because, well, Brad Cox is the creator of Objective-C.

I've sat idly by sometimes, smirking to myself, while something with which I was fairly intimate - indeed something on which I was certified, created, wrote, and/or studied intensely - is discussed. It's amusing, and I always wonder whether I should pipe up or simply let the person make a fool of themself. Often I choose the latter. No help needed from me - they'll do it on their own.

Sometimes people have recommended software (or a Web site) I've written right back to me. Sometimes they'll mention software I helped beta test. I'm never quite sure what to do in those situations - grin and take their "suggestion" in a polite fashion, or risk embarrassing them by pointing out that they should check the About Box for my name (or something?). Sometimes I try to hint at things, to avoid the embarrassment, but sometimes the odd cookie won't even get the hint.

It's a very odd situation in which to find yourself, that much I know.

P.S. J, you're wrong. 100% undeniably wrong. And several people who know this for a fact have told you as such. You are one of those clueless people who's yet to take the hint, to realize that you don't know who you're talking to, and to simply shut up and admit that you are wrong.

P.P.S. Apologies to the many good people I know whose name begins with the letter J. I must maintain some level of plausible deniability here, but suffice to say the J of which I speak I've never met in real life. So any friends, I'm no talking about you here.

5 Responses to "You Don’t Know Who You’re Talking To"

  1. Hey! I take offense to that J comment...

    Oh... wait... my name is Etan not JEtan.

    😉

  2. No, you're wrong. Your name is DEFINITELY JEtan.

    Could've sworn there was a little info on this page the last time I looked at it.... 😉

  3. Reminds me of Isaac Asimov's sitting in on some literature professor's lecture analysing one of his books. At the end Asimov disagreed with the guy's conclusions, finishing by saying "I'm the author!", only to be told, "Just because you wrote the book, you think you know anything about it?" 😀

  4. You shouldn't be offended if someone recommends your software to you, you should be flattered. Most users surely have no idea who wrote the apps they use (though i suppose I know who wrote most of my regular apps.. even the ones from Apple... but i'm a geek 🙂

    -Ben

  5. Please post the link to the head of the discussion thread...

    Sounds amusing.

    Having written a pile of various random apps, utils, APIs, etc, I fairly regularly receive some seriously odd and sometimes the most completely idiotic questions and/or suggestions.

    I'm still receiving questions about Perl and Tcl code that I wrote over 10 years ago and have long since abandoned.... every now and then, a question will be asked about something I don't even remember having been involved in. Always fun to go do a google search at that point....