About Me

My photo
I'm a life-long New Englander, father of 4 challenging kids (I know: I'm supposed to say "wonderful", but while that'd be true, technically speaking, it'd also be misleading), and fortunate husband to my favorite wife of more than 20 years. I've got over 20 years experience breaking things as a test engineer, quality engineer, reliability engineer, and most recently (and most enjoyably) a Product Safety / EMC Compliance Engineer. In the photo, I'm on the left.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Poor Communication...my bad!

From the comments that I got on last day's post on errors and accidents, it would seem like my thinking may have been poorly communicated...sorry about that.

Seems like I might have communicated that there's a bunch of stupidity running around, and the only options when a thing is done that shouldn't have been, are stupidity and malice.

I do like that quote (Hanlon's Razor), but I think that there's another option that I didn't communicate well.

The fact is that everyone, regardless of IQ, makes mistakes. I think that I make them more than most, and sooner or later I'm bound to post about some of my dumber moves that I've made through the years.

I think my thought is that:
If a thing that oughtn't be done is done...
and it is done with intent...
then the options, to me, are stupidity and malice.

I have done many, many, many things that oughtn't have been done, but not so much with intent. Those are accidents that we hope to learn from (and are expected to a degree). I have also done things that oughtn't have been done, and I did them with intent. Those are going to show up in posts as my own personal stupid human tricks. I don't think that I've been motivated to do such things out of malice.

So there are three options, really: Accident, Stupidity, and Malice. Again: for having done things that oughtn't be done.

We all err (and such errors are often, but are not always, born of stupidity); we all commit accidents (which we hopefully learn from).

Sometimes, we might with intent do things that oughtn't be done...let us assume that when someone else does something of this sort, it's stupidity and not malice that motivates them.

8 comments:

  1. I remember my sister, deeply in trouble and trying to talk her way out of it, saying "I accidentally did it by mistake." To which my Mom replied "Then you actually meant to do it on purpose?" lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's awesome! Nothing like a double-negative to make my day!

      Delete
  2. This concept you are discussing, makes me think of all those bitchy/drama girls who gossip about other girls and what they did or said, and reading all sorts of nastiness into everything. *shiver* People are blinded to their own faults and constantly looking to find fault in others. There's a reason I no longer socialize...

    Sometimes I think I'm living one long accident. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For better or for worse, people are people...

      Keep socializing here though!

      Delete
  3. People throw around the word 'accident' a lot more than they should. Even in the obvious car accident. If someone was racing around at 125 mph, drunk, and plows into the back of another car, that's not an accident. That's stupidity, plain and simple.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting point...which is a perfect segue for today's installment!!

      Delete
  4. I hit a vehicle from behind. one year ago. It was, I will admit it, stupidity.

    ReplyDelete