Delicious LiveJournal Links for 11-9-2010

[andrewducker]

• Labour seem to be supporting the coalition government over the welfare/work changes
  (tags: welfare government uk)
• AOL looking to buy Yahoo. Does anyone care about _either_ of these companies any more???
  (tags: aol yahoo internet business)
• The Times’ Paywall and Newsletter Economics - the figures are actually worse than I thought.
  (tags: media newspapers business economics newspaper paywall journalism)
• And the Most Popular Way to Read an E-Book Is …
  (tags: ereader ebooks amazon kindle sony ipad technology)
• The most awesome Lego/Star Wars mash up ever. Only more awesome than that.
  (tags: video lego starwars)
• What comics can do that movies can't.
  (tags: comics movies warrenellis)
• French doctor's 'million-to-one' chance of catching baby who fell from balcony
  (tags: france children luck)
• Cooks Magazine, the apology Judith Griggs should have given. Hilarious from end to end.
  (tags: copyright funny)
• Lorem ipsum - amazing photography of calligraphic body art.
  (tags: art photography words)
• This is how I feel about correcting other people's grammar. Particularly the last sentence of the first paragraph
  (tags: awesome english grammar language linguistics)
• Reporting Sexual Harassment in SF/F
  (tags: assault rape sf fandom publishing conventions)
• Is News Corp about to kill off MySpace?
  (tags: myspace socialnetworking software web2.0)
• Is Apple planing to move to Light Peak?
  (tags: apple intel technology)
• 3 starts killing off 2G coverage
  (tags: mobile_phones 3g uk)
• Altruism gene associated with higher willingness to donate.
  (tags: altruism genetics behaviour psychology)
• The riddle of the NHS budget
  (tags: nhs budget money government uk)
• Government promises dramatic increase in transparency about contracts and costs.
  (tags: data transparency uk government)
• argest independent pilot's association to boycott full body scanners
  (tags: airplanes security_theatre usa)
• Majority of British people believe in control orders, using information obrained through torture and denying prisoners the vote.
  (tags: uk society)

Comments

[innerbrat]

From the grammar article:

Asking someone to give you free professional advice when they are not at work and just looking to enjoy casual conversation with their dry martini is, of course, total etiquette fail.

My opinion remains that if you somehow don't want to talk for hours about the subject matter and techniques of your job, no matter whether you're getting paid for it or not, then you're in the wrong job and need to get over the fact that other people find your work interesting.

[andrewducker]

Oh Good Lord, no. I have an interest in computers, but almost no interest in diagnosing computer problems people have, or discussing at length them with people that know little about them.

[innerbrat]

I just cannot understand that. I like nothing more than talking about paleontology or science or education theory.

But then, I assume you haven't embarked on a career of diagnosis or education? (Like everyone in the examples gven by the blog?)

[andrewducker]

I am interested in computer programming, and systems design. "Why your printer doesn't work" isn't something that's going to grab my attention even slightly. I'll fix stuff for friends, because, well, that's what friends do. But on an intellectual level? Dull as dishwater, and I've done it 5000 times before.

[innerbrat]

Well, quite. You're not a professional educator or diagnositian. Someone who went into the field of education who then proceeds to resent everyone who desires education is what is so alien to me.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Ah, that makes more sense. But I'd still hold out hope that the writer might enjoy talking about teaching or about grammar but not talking about the sort of things they're complaining about. (And the reason it being rude to ask is not because it's bad to talk about the topic, but "asking for professional advice" for most professions NOT really talking about it, whereas "do you do X a lot", while perhaps overused, is still a reasonable conversation starter)

[stillcarl.livejournal.com]

Science? Well, microwave ovens are a product of science, so would you like to fix mine? Some of the buttons don't work.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

:-) Indeed!

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

As the old joke goes, at a party a doctor and a lawyer were talking. The doctor complained that people kept asking him for professional advice. The lawyer was sympathetic, and said he used to have the same problem. The doctor asked asked what had changed. The lawyer said that whenever he'd been asked for professional advice, he'd send a bill the next day, and people soon learned. The doctor heartily lauded this technique, and vowed to do the same. The next morning, he got a bill from the lawyer.

That your job should be that interesting is a good point. But I imagine the sort of things people are likely to ask "in passing" tend to be well-meaning but (a) endless repetitions of the most obvious misconceptions about your job and (b) talking about fairly obvious problems that need a high level of detail checking.