6 ms·

We don't really have a good name for the emotion that this article describes as "feeling Stupid". You know what it feels like to be stupid? It feels like you

by rhelz 2y ago

We don't really have a good name for the emotion that this article describes as "feeling Stupid". You know what it feels like to be stupid? It feels like you are really smart! I feels like you already know all you need to know, about, say, vaccinations, or about hot to parent somebody else's children. I'm currently a student teacher, and I'm really struggling to get this point across to my students. I'm asking them questions which make them really think, and since no other teacher has done that to them before, they feel really stupid. But they are not being stupid. If they were being stupid, they'd feel like they had it all figured out. So yeah, there is this emotion, commonly but unfortunately called "feeling stupid", which you feel when you are trying to figure something out. What would be a good name for that emotion???

082349872349872 2y ago
anticipation of cluefulness? epistemic frustration? temporarily embarrassed expertise? perplexed?
- gradschoolfail 2y ago
  Ideally it should cover TC-ST’s emotions as expressed in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41548104 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41548104 (Mulling/marvelling ATM how wikipedia talkpages, mastodon, o1, or HN are all inadequate for the kind of conversations we all hope for, something about the tension between sublimating koinonia & prowess-seeking) EDIT Getting a bit selfreferential here too https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41567018 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41567018 EDIT 2: “barely bottled in-game insanity” could work
  - 082349872349872 2y ago
    on mulling/marveling: a) FPD read the Glass Bead Game, and instead of fixating on the game itself as I have done, noticed how the conversations tended toward an ideal (also, IIRC, recommended in the NE): https://franklin.dyer.me/post/123 https://franklin.dyer.me/post/123 b) etymologically, companions eat bread together, and symposia involve drinking. Maybe a problem with digital fora is that although we may have moved on from grooming and nitpicking, we still require at least a minial amount of analogue ingestion and imbibing for conviviality? (in the dating context, see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=910852 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=910852 ) EDIT: Re: "barely bottled in-game insanity", either someone needs to tell Stross that Series Landys don't have ignition buttons, or I need to accept the foreshadowing and realise that detail was an early in-story clue of power of eldritch horrors* to transmute and pervert even the most solid basis of innate rural goodness. * in the world of the Laundry; in our world it was Tata who added the buttons
    - gradschoolfail 2y ago
      Tata the ferrous conglomerate? Do you have a cite
      - 082349872349872 2y ago
        https://www.jaguarlandrover.com/overview#:~:text=subsidiary%20of,since%202008 https://www.jaguarlandrover.com/overview#:~:text=subsidiary%...
        gradschoolfail 2y ago
        Aah, I thought you were hinting at malfeasance by TM. Lumpers girl, is hardly mentioned by Farina without dubbies also indicated; secretarial skills hinted at at least once.
        082349872349872 2y ago
        Malfeasance? TM evidently believes that in this century a Landy is fated to be a Chelsea tractor; from YT videos (which only show inanimate gear, not sheep or goats or anything practical) it appears they expect that one ought to rinse whatever one is transporting off before stowing it in the boot — completely backwards. There is a very boomer joke, probably at least fifty years old by now, which involves a (male, of course) boss who interviews 3 (female, of course) secretarial candidates, and maybe there's some WPM involved, but he also gives them each a pile of cash as part of the interview. One goes to the track, one invests in the overnight market, etc. So which one does he hire? The one with the most wood in front of the hut. Lagniappe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSBb8ESt96g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSBb8ESt96g
        gradschoolfail 2y ago
        Btw, i wasnt suggesting that you pair HN with EtOH like tptacek does — loading up on a few yt rhymes should achieve the same effect for you? Conviviality without killing any brain cells.. Blonde is americain? The tattooed guy, alpine accent?
- rhelz 2y ago
  Perplexed!!!!!!! That is exactly the right word. It has no negative connotations like “bewildered” or “stupid” does, so it’s ok for them to self-describe as “perplexed” in a way because it is not self-denigrating like “stupid” is.
dav_Oz 2y ago
You are likely referring to ignorance: not knowing what you don't know thus resulting in a possible false confidence. The article is about "feeling stupid" in hindsight. Because you cannot unsee it anymore. Which makes you wonder about other myriad obvious things you are missing. "Feeling stupid" can also mean that you get the impression that everyone around you gets it but you don't. The irony especially in maths - it seems - is that you can feel stupid because you don't get it and then quit but also keep feeling stupid if you finally got it because in hindsight everything falls so neatly into place that you can't imagine that you had so much trouble to get it in the first place!

by rhelz 2y ago

082349872349872 2y ago

anticipation of cluefulness? epistemic frustration? temporarily embarrassed expertise? perplexed?

gradschoolfail 2y ago
Ideally it should cover TC-ST’s emotions as expressed in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41548104 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41548104 (Mulling/marvelling ATM how wikipedia talkpages, mastodon, o1, or HN are all inadequate for the kind of conversations we all hope for, something about the tension between sublimating koinonia & prowess-seeking) EDIT Getting a bit selfreferential here too https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41567018 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41567018 EDIT 2: “barely bottled in-game insanity” could work
- 082349872349872 2y ago
  on mulling/marveling: a) FPD read the Glass Bead Game, and instead of fixating on the game itself as I have done, noticed how the conversations tended toward an ideal (also, IIRC, recommended in the NE): https://franklin.dyer.me/post/123 https://franklin.dyer.me/post/123 b) etymologically, companions eat bread together, and symposia involve drinking. Maybe a problem with digital fora is that although we may have moved on from grooming and nitpicking, we still require at least a minial amount of analogue ingestion and imbibing for conviviality? (in the dating context, see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=910852 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=910852 ) EDIT: Re: "barely bottled in-game insanity", either someone needs to tell Stross that Series Landys don't have ignition buttons, or I need to accept the foreshadowing and realise that detail was an early in-story clue of power of eldritch horrors* to transmute and pervert even the most solid basis of innate rural goodness. * in the world of the Laundry; in our world it was Tata who added the buttons
  - gradschoolfail 2y ago
    Tata the ferrous conglomerate? Do you have a cite
    - 082349872349872 2y ago
      https://www.jaguarlandrover.com/overview#:~:text=subsidiary%20of,since%202008 https://www.jaguarlandrover.com/overview#:~:text=subsidiary%...
      - gradschoolfail 2y ago
        Aah, I thought you were hinting at malfeasance by TM. Lumpers girl, is hardly mentioned by Farina without dubbies also indicated; secretarial skills hinted at at least once.
        082349872349872 2y ago
        Malfeasance? TM evidently believes that in this century a Landy is fated to be a Chelsea tractor; from YT videos (which only show inanimate gear, not sheep or goats or anything practical) it appears they expect that one ought to rinse whatever one is transporting off before stowing it in the boot — completely backwards. There is a very boomer joke, probably at least fifty years old by now, which involves a (male, of course) boss who interviews 3 (female, of course) secretarial candidates, and maybe there's some WPM involved, but he also gives them each a pile of cash as part of the interview. One goes to the track, one invests in the overnight market, etc. So which one does he hire? The one with the most wood in front of the hut. Lagniappe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSBb8ESt96g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSBb8ESt96g
        gradschoolfail 2y ago
        Btw, i wasnt suggesting that you pair HN with EtOH like tptacek does — loading up on a few yt rhymes should achieve the same effect for you? Conviviality without killing any brain cells.. Blonde is americain? The tattooed guy, alpine accent?
rhelz 2y ago
Perplexed!!!!!!! That is exactly the right word. It has no negative connotations like “bewildered” or “stupid” does, so it’s ok for them to self-describe as “perplexed” in a way because it is not self-denigrating like “stupid” is.

dav_Oz 2y ago

You are likely referring to ignorance: not knowing what you don't know thus resulting in a possible false confidence. The article is about "feeling stupid" in hindsight. Because you cannot unsee it anymore. Which makes you wonder about other myriad obvious things you are missing. "Feeling stupid" can also mean that you get the impression that everyone around you gets it but you don't. The irony especially in maths - it seems - is that you can feel stupid because you don't get it and then quit but also keep feeling stupid if you finally got it because in hindsight everything falls so neatly into place that you can't imagine that you had so much trouble to get it in the first place!