Bharathi Jagadeesh <bjag at ln.nimh.nih.gov> wrote:
>Robert (morphis at physics.niu.edu) writes
>> Bharathi Jagadeesh <bjag at ln.nimh.nih.gov> writes:
>> >2) Harsh criticism (sometimes personal) because you have to learn to
>> >face it.
>> Fuck off and die.
>[speculation on why I posted the above deleted]
I think the best explanation of why I posted it is that the implications
of what you wrote angered me deeply, I wanted you to understand that and
an intellectual description just didn't cut the cake.
>Interestingly, you now have the distinction of having said the nastiest
>thing to me that has ever been said in a debate!
I did not post that to elicit any particular response but the response
it has elicited from you reinforces my point. You, apparently, take
grave offence to what I wrote above. OTOH if someone were to say or
imply that I am stupid, ignorant, lying, incompetant, or sloppy, that
would hurt more than for them to curse me out. Far more so if it
were a person with whom I had worked for some time, a mentor even.
Yes, that was a nasty comment. But if that was the nastiest comment
then either you haven't been in very many debates (which I doubt) or
our perceptions are quite different.
"[D]elivered in a context of trust" is simply to vague a modifier
to what is suggested by 2). I am simply not willing to trust somebody's
judgement that the protege will understand that the mentor is doing this
for the protege's own good without some kind of explicit warning ahead
of time.
>[I]n fact, the world teaches women to be truely sensitive souls,
>and I have seen far too many women disolve in to tears, or become
>incoherently speachless when faced with unfair opposition.
Then I withdraw my "why would you want to?".
But the approach to that problem should be systematic and not haphazard
"toughening up".
[areas of agreement deleted]
>I hope that I don't _deliver_ poor criticism, but again, I think I
>should be free to state that an idea is dead wrong, if I can back
>up my opinion, and in those words.
Eloquence is not a prerequisite for offering criticism. You do the best
you can, you try to improve, I certainly can't ask for more than that.
OTOH there are those who are deliberately vague and rude in their criticism
as a sort of test/game. But that is a discussion for another day.
Robert
