Yay, ignorance

[Grillick]

I'm sorry, how exactly did he earn it? Are you suggesting he was somehow involved in the assassination of William McKinley?

[FreakyBoy]

No, he travelled back in time to assure he was born a few months later.

[Grillick]

Was this before or after he prevented the Daleks from conquering Cuba?

[FreakyBoy]

Both, actually. Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey.

[Jorodryn]

The value is preserving the legacy of awesome of Teddy Roosevelt, our most awesome President. Don't you dare take any accolades he rightfully earned!

umm.. nevermind my post... it was sort of POOPy.

[kitoba]

I had a philosophy teacher that made these sorts of "minor" slips all the time... which, being philosophy, actually mattered a great deal. Like the time the class wasted 20 minutes arguing with him only to find out that what he was presenting as the "principle of alternative choice" was actually the "principle of alternative possibilities"...

I once had a philosophy professor who argued with a student for several minutes over the student's own name. He eventually looked it up in his roster, and finally concluded "Apparently, you are correct!"

[Kea]

I have never seen a student here try to challenge anything a professor said. I think several giggled at the "Muslims respect pigs" comment, but nobody said anything out loud. Our students seem to subscribe to the ethos of "Nobody likes a wise-arse". It's hard to get them to say anything even if you ask them to participate; nobody's ever going to volunteer a question or comment, let alone a confrontational one. If you say something stupid to them, they will quietly go away and gossip behind your back about what an idiot you are.

I reckon that many people who are seen as ignorant actually know a hell of a lot of stuff about things that society deems unimportant or obscure. Imagine someone who knew very little about history, geography, politics, mathematics or science, but who could quote to you the stats of every Pokemon ever and who had collected every last one in every side quest of every Pokemon game ever released for every console.

[arcosh]

AFAIK in many cultures, including many asian ones, publically contradicting a superior is considered an attack at his authority. Such an attitude would natrually keep students from confronting their professors about being not factually correct.

Coming from a culture where this is not the case and as someone working in a technical profession (computer programmer), i wonder just how you can get anything done with that attitude. After all the people with the the communication skills and the talent for strategic planing should go to management, while thoose with the technical knowledge go to technical specialisation positions with the managers as superiors. Expecting the engeneers to decide which cases where the managers are wrong are critical for the operation of the company and coming up with a diplomatic way to communicate their input, seems to be horribly inefficient.

As to what you should expect a person to know highly depends on that persons background. Not knowing something might be suspiciously ignorant or absolutely to be expected, depending on what places the person has lived in, on the subculture, the profession ect.

One anecdote of correcting a professor:
The professor of mathematics had held a class, a student had questioned if one proff is actually correct, they discussed a little while, then the professor said he has to look this up at home, he'll give a definite answer at the next class. At the next class, he thanked the student for pointing it out, while the theorem was correct (he provided an other proof), the proof was not. The professor said, he had been just in time to stop a book of his from being published, that had contained the same error.

[Kea]

Having worked here for a year and a half, I think that the so-called Asian respect for authority isn't so much genuine deference as an aversion to public confrontation. Everyone may think the boss is an idiot, but nobody wants to be That Guy who says it to his face. And yeah, it's pretty damn inefficient. A few of my co-workers spend ages agonizing over the wording and tone of an email so as to sound diplomatic. Hell, when I handed in my letter of resignation today, a co-worker advised me not to write "My last day will be X" because that makes it sound like I am getting big-headed about deciding unilaterally when I would like to quit. I didn't listen to her. After all, what could they do to me? Sack me?

[Jorodryn]

Wow, it's big headed to determine the day that you no longer want to be employed? What an odd concept.

[giggles]

I thought employers prefer you to let them know ahead of time that you're leaving. I gave my notice when I left this company on '09 which left me eligible for rehire after I moved back and had my son.

[weatherwax]

Hell, when I handed in my letter of resignation today, a co-worker advised me not to write "My last day will be X" because that makes it sound like I am getting big-headed about deciding unilaterally when I would like to quit. I didn't listen to her. After all, what could they do to me? Sack me?

Kea, I'm so glad you're getting out of there. The last -- year and a half? -- sounded awful.

Also, the idiocy is incredible.

[arcosh]

After all, what could they do to me? Sack me?

They could get bitchy about money they still have to pay you. Or gossip to other potential employers about it. Though it often happens that people take more precaustions with superiors, then is actually neccessary, so it propably was not a particulary risky thing to do for you.

[AlternateTorg]

One of my favorite teachers in high school was my AP physics teacher. His name was Dr. Harvey (though he preferred to be called Doc Harvey), and he was very up-front in acknowledging that he was, in fact, human, and capable of error. Each day in class we would go over the homework problems on the board. On one occasion, after asking who had the answer to problem X and seeing that nobody raised their hand, Doc Harvey proceeded to work it out himself on the board, talking it out as he went. At the end, he circled his answer and asked a student to confirm it with the back of the book.

Doc's answer was wrong.

He look at his proof, spotted an error, reworked the proof from that point and circled a new answer. That answer was wrong, too. Again he noticed a mistake, reworked the proof... and produced another incorrect answer.

At that point, he turned to face the class and said, "I am now going to teach you something very important, something that all fizzikers (his preferred term for physicists) do. What is the correct answer?" The answer was given, and he wrote it on the board. "Who has a calculator? Divide the correct answer by my answer here. What's the result?" The calculation was duly performed and provided. "This here," he said, indicating the calculated value, "is what fizzikers call a fudge factor. Multiply your answer by the fudge factor... hey, look, there's the right answer."

At the next class, he presented us with the corrected proof.

[Kajin]

After all, what could they do to me? Sack me?

It's generally considered proper workplace etiquette to give about two-weeks of notice from the time you hand in your resignation letter to the time you quit. This gives them a fair amount of time to try and find someone to replace you so the transition is smooth and none of your coworkers are caused any problems with your leaving.

If other companies find out that you left abruptly without giving two weeks of notice, it might very well weigh against you and prevent you from getting a job if they're weighing your job application against several others. As petty and vindictive as your bosses have seemed to me in your descriptions over the months, I would consider it a guarantee that it'll weigh against you in some shape or form.

Don't ever assume that your old company won't continue to be a pain in the ass. Even if... No, especially if you're no longer working for them.