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Networking and the arrogant a$$

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NathanAllan

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2003
Messages
2,437
Location
Bellevue, Colorado
I was at the games store today and casually asked about the broadband adapter for the gamecube of the clerk. The clerk really couldn't answer any of my networking questions as expected (had to try) and this other guy piped up with more information. I didn't mind the info, but he was an arrogant SOB while he told it. He claimed he was a comp. science professional that was working on some kind of net/cluster thing, kinda like Seti@home. Going to try to go work at TX Tech. I felt he was downplaying my little bit of experience. This kinda ticked me off.

Whenever I come across someone new to the field I do my best to encourage them, tell them about the really neat stuff that they will get to do. Show my enthusiasm and try to get them all enthused. It is a pretty tough field, after all, when you really get into it. I try to encourage as much as I can, WHY must there be some people that try to dissuade another from the field that they're in. I have to say that was very petty about that person.

He was a pro, and in comparison I'm a novice. I just gotta say what's up with that?

Nathan
 
The IT industry has far too much ego for its own good. I tried to get a job somewhere a long while back and the guy acted like was some kind of god because he *claimed* to be a member of the IEEE. I don't know why people feel the need to be so condescending all the time, but it gets pretty old. Lose the ego, no one cares.
 
NathanAllan said:
I was at the games store today and casually asked about the broadband adapter for the gamecube of the clerk. The clerk really couldn't answer any of my networking questions as expected (had to try) and this other guy piped up with more information. I didn't mind the info, but he was an arrogant SOB while he told it. He claimed he was a comp. science professional that was working on some kind of net/cluster thing, kinda like Seti@home. Going to try to go work at TX Tech. I felt he was downplaying my little bit of experience. This kinda ticked me off.

Whenever I come across someone new to the field I do my best to encourage them, tell them about the really neat stuff that they will get to do. Show my enthusiasm and try to get them all enthused. It is a pretty tough field, after all, when you really get into it. I try to encourage as much as I can, WHY must there be some people that try to dissuade another from the field that they're in. I have to say that was very petty about that person.

He was a pro, and in comparison I'm a novice. I just gotta say what's up with that?

Nathan
Click to expand...


Nathan,

I think you have the right approach. A little enthusiam and humility goes a long ways. It is an important part of dealing with people to treat them with respect like we all would like to be treated with.

Odds are if you got the impression with just that brief encounter, I would bet the guy does it all the time. I think it is really a sign of weakness and overcompensating for a lack of real credibility.

Most of the people I encounter (too often unfortunately) who act like that ultimately do more damage to themselves than anyone else. I know when I get that treatment it is an instant turn off.

Not that it make you feel much better but I think you can be assured he harms himself more than he impresses anyone. I agree that the IT industry has at least its fair share of people like you describe.

Some of the worst arrogance I have ever seen has been in Linux and related open source projects. I swear some people get their thrills treating other people like garbage. It is a shame and turns away new people routinely. Ultimately, I think it is self defeating as well.

Just let it go because it isn't worth your effort.

Try to have a good day anyway! Thanks!

Andrew Lynch
 
Go to Fry's Electronics (or similar store) & ask for ANY type of ROM. (EPROM, EEPROM, etc...) I gurantee half of the employees will look at you like you're crazy, & the other half in an endless "UUUhhhh".

Oh, & No one knows anything about the Gamecube's Broadband adapter because there was only one or two titles that supported it. Other than that, it's only use is for ripping games & homebrew internet browsers.
 
dongfeng said:
A comp. science professional working in a games store? Yeah, right :lol:
Click to expand...

He didn't work there, he was just there.

The one group that treated me even worse was the El Paso Mac User Group. They all had the shiny new machines and there I was with my 68K dinosaur, thinking of a group that was totally different. That level of arrogance took the cake. I'll never forget being asked, "Okay, in a perfect world what do you hope to accomplish? I mean, what do you want to happen? In a perfect world?" The Linux guys have yet to beat that. Never been to one of their meetings, though.

Thanks for the encouragement, I appreciate it. I'll never be one of those guys that belittles someone in my field that has less experience.
 
For what it is worth, it could be a computer science student working extra hours in a game store. Or of course, he could be graduated without a job too. At least over here, there still are quite a lot of unemployed IT people with bachelor or even master degrees. In a such situation, selling computer games would be better than doing nothing, even if you're wastly over qualified.

At the same time, companies are looking for professionals with several years of expertise in one particular field of computing, but wouldn't consider for a second to hire a "fresh" person and try to educate him or her about the special requirements. Their loss, I presume if the company loses clients because they are short of experienced staff.
 
NathanAllan said:
He didn't work there, he was just there.

[snip]

Thanks for the encouragement, I appreciate it. I'll never be one of those guys that belittles someone in my field that has less experience.
Click to expand...

One thing I have learned is (the hard way at times) no matter what the subject there is always someone who knows more about it than I do. No one is an expert in every field and there are few genuine experts in even specialized knowledge areas.

Sometimes it takes a little experience to learn the lesson. Hopefully the person in the video store will learn it as well before he does too much damage to himself.

Of course, there are those people which never learn...

Be cool! Thanks!

Andrew Lynch
 
only last week I tried to buy a 25 way male to male serial cable, the guy got quite shirty with me because he insisted that serial ONLY came with 9 way Ds on, and it must be a printer cable that I was after. I gave up BEFORE asking for the double ended centronics printer cable!

There is a proverb(?) "Empty kettles make the most noise" probably applicable.
 
Hm. I just went through three of the largest web shops over here, and neither has anything resembling a DB25F-DB25F cable. At best they have extension cables 25F-25M. Furthermore, I wonder if the difference between a serial 25F-25M and a parallel ditto is the number of leads connected.

You wrote that you were looking for a DB25M-DB25M cable, which I believe is known as a parallel cable. Either that, or I am mixing up the genders on my computer connectors.
 
We're wandering more off topic than off topic here, but it was male to male I needed. some serials and some parallels are not "full compliment" which can lead to interesting problems when used in the wrong context.

I'm sorted out now, The local Maplin shop were selling them as "buy one-get one free" on a big box of mixed comms cables, so i helped myself to a variety, including a proper parallel Laplink cable.
 
It's not just clerks

It's not just clerks

I used to be a member of the Nashville Linux Users group list. Once someone posted a question about running linux on an old 486 laptop. The most vocal of the group were posting smart-a$$ remarks like "Use it for a boat anchor" and "Why don't you buy a REAL computer!". Of course these guys were Vanderbilt students who could afford to plunk down $5000 or so of daddy's money, and act like they were better then everyone.
I explained how I hadsetup linux on a 486 laptop wit 18M of ram and a 120 M hard drive.

A day or two later, I was barred from the list.
 
The local Linux group around here has a TON of the most odd rules. Like you can't use color in the IRC channel (??) They have rules for everything, its absurd.
 
niklaus said:
I used to be a member of the Nashville Linux Users group list. Once someone posted a question about running linux on an old 486 laptop. The most vocal of the group were posting smart-a$$ remarks like "Use it for a boat anchor" and "Why don't you buy a REAL computer!". Of course these guys were Vanderbilt students who could afford to plunk down $5000 or so of daddy's money, and act like they were better then everyone.
I explained how I hadsetup linux on a 486 laptop wit 18M of ram and a 120 M hard drive.

A day or two later, I was barred from the list.
Click to expand...

That's a Vandy student for ya. :) I had my experiences with vandies when I worked at this little organic foods store, they would come in and talk the talk, sooo bad. I'm from Nashville so I know the type. The Linux group here isn't all that arrogant, they just don't have time for people who have projects other than their pet ones, like the router autodiscovery thing they've been working on at the community college. They don't have time for my little projects. They actually sounded impressed that I put slack on a P1.

The computer scientists and engineers are the arrogant ones here.

Nathan
 
I myself am a computer tech, certified and stuff like that, but I always treat the customer how I want to be treated: Like a human.

I get SO pissed when someone treats me like a newb, because they say have been there "longer". I just tell them: "Being used to something longer than me, doesn't mean you actually understand it."

And when someone treats me like a normal human being, I thank them.

And to the above, I get the same kind of remarks, because I use a Macintosh.. I keep getting told "It's a piece of crap!" I tell them: "So your insulting Unix? Your insulting the company that made a REAL GUI popular?" things like that.. They either "get it" or they just go on and on, and I walk away. :p (sometimes.)
 
No matter what you do, where you go, you will find the jerks.

I;ve been doing this for over 20 years, and I try to encourage all I can.
Most of these dips are always on a "knowledge challenge" always trying to be the right one, the smarter one, the know-it-all.

A Lousiville Slugger would probably work wonders for attitude adjustment.
Problem is, it would be temporary - once a jerk, always a jerk.


Tony
 
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