> When someone asks an obvious question, the interpreter of the question has two paths to choose.
> (a) Assume the author is very stupid and then tell him the very stupid and obvious answer.
> (b) Interpret the question as rhetorical.
> People who take (a) are the type of people who think they're smarter than everyone else, but who are actually, in fact, dumber. Usually they lack empathy, are undersocialized, and probably show on the autism spectrum.
> People who take (b) are the type of people who correctly interpret the statement.
It's funny; people have been telling me my whole life that observing when other people ask obvious questions makes me a huge jerk, and I should patiently give them the obvious answers they ask for.
It's actually a very interesting problem. It depends entirely on the person and the extent to which they are conscious of the multitudinous implications of their statements.
But really, whoever has been giving you that advice is a dunce. I expect your being seen as a jerk has a lot more to do with how you negotiate people's feeling than how you interpret their statements. The people giving you that advice probably want you to stop being a jerk but can't quite articulate what they mean.
This is actually more interesting than whatever the fuck this thread was about. Hermeneutics is funnnn.
> (a) Assume the author is very stupid and then tell him the very stupid and obvious answer.
> (b) Interpret the question as rhetorical.
> People who take (a) are the type of people who think they're smarter than everyone else, but who are actually, in fact, dumber. Usually they lack empathy, are undersocialized, and probably show on the autism spectrum.
> People who take (b) are the type of people who correctly interpret the statement.
It's funny; people have been telling me my whole life that observing when other people ask obvious questions makes me a huge jerk, and I should patiently give them the obvious answers they ask for.