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> Note that "find someone smarter" doesn't necessarily mean "you are stupid". It does imply that further discussion with this person on this topic will be point

> Note that "find someone smarter" doesn't necessarily mean "you are stupid". It does imply that further discussion with this person on this topic will be pointless though. It also implies "Someone smarter will see it my way" which implies "I'm smarter than you" which is getting to part of the root of what's offensive about that wording. > "talking to you is a waste of my time" That's slightly less offensive than what was said because it no longer implies a "smarter" person would be less of a "waste of my time", but it's still fairly offensive.

kbenson 10y ago
> It also implies "Someone smarter will see it my way" which implies "I'm smarter than you" which is getting to part of the root of what's offensive about that wording. Yes, but in this case, "my way" is referring to the understanding that real problems need real solutions and that continuous deflection based on technicalities doesn't help with that. I would count that as an indicator that one person was smarter than the other in that specific context. To be clear, I don't believe intelligence can be measured along a single axis in any useful way (I've met plenty of "smart" people that acted very stupidly, and plenty of "stupid" people that showed amazing amount of competence and intelligence about certain things), so I didn't read the initial statement as indicating intelligence overall of an individual. > That's slightly less offensive than what was said because it no longer implies a "smarter" person would be less of a "waste of my time", but it's still fairly offensive. It's also fairly subjective. It's your right to be offended at what you want, but I would caution against being offended without confirming the intent and/meaning behind the statements. I've shown how I interpreted it somewhat differently than you, so there's at least some ambiguity.
- jjnoakes 10y ago
  > I would caution against being offended without confirming the intent and/meaning behind the statements. Which is why I merely replied with "I don't know why you think this has anything to do with lack of intelligence." I could have said "you are wrong and it has nothing to do with lack of intelligence" (which is what I believe), or I could have gone further and said or implied I'm smarter than he is (which I didn't do, but which the original commenter said I did for some reason), but I didn't. So I believe you are preaching to the choir here.
  - kbenson 10y ago
    Understood. In that respect, it's unfortunate that your original reply happened on cursory review to match what the original comment was talking about in general, even if it didn't really in intent. Without that context, there would have been nothing for anyone to object to (or more accurately, misinterpret and call negative attention to).

kbenson 10y ago

> It also implies "Someone smarter will see it my way" which implies "I'm smarter than you" which is getting to part of the root of what's offensive about that wording. Yes, but in this case, "my way" is referring to the understanding that real problems need real solutions and that continuous deflection based on technicalities doesn't help with that. I would count that as an indicator that one person was smarter than the other in that specific context. To be clear, I don't believe intelligence can be measured along a single axis in any useful way (I've met plenty of "smart" people that acted very stupidly, and plenty of "stupid" people that showed amazing amount of competence and intelligence about certain things), so I didn't read the initial statement as indicating intelligence overall of an individual. > That's slightly less offensive than what was said because it no longer implies a "smarter" person would be less of a "waste of my time", but it's still fairly offensive. It's also fairly subjective. It's your right to be offended at what you want, but I would caution against being offended without confirming the intent and/meaning behind the statements. I've shown how I interpreted it somewhat differently than you, so there's at least some ambiguity.

jjnoakes 10y ago
> I would caution against being offended without confirming the intent and/meaning behind the statements. Which is why I merely replied with "I don't know why you think this has anything to do with lack of intelligence." I could have said "you are wrong and it has nothing to do with lack of intelligence" (which is what I believe), or I could have gone further and said or implied I'm smarter than he is (which I didn't do, but which the original commenter said I did for some reason), but I didn't. So I believe you are preaching to the choir here.
- kbenson 10y ago
  Understood. In that respect, it's unfortunate that your original reply happened on cursory review to match what the original comment was talking about in general, even if it didn't really in intent. Without that context, there would have been nothing for anyone to object to (or more accurately, misinterpret and call negative attention to).