[MUD-Dev] Usability and interface and who the hell is suppo

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

On Sun, 21 Sep 1997 13:19:26 PST8PDT, Ola Fosheim Gr=F8stad
<olag at ifi.uio.no> wrote:

>How come you chose to address those replies that were "combative and
>insulting" with so much energy?  I replied to your original message,
>but I cannot see you responding to that one.

I have a bad habit of on occasion getting a mail message at work,
starting to reply to it, being called away for one reason or another and
cancelling the message... then (when I get home) seeing the same message
and thinking I replied to it. I do apologise if it looks like I'm
snubbing you, because I'm not; another reason this sort of mixup tends
to occur is when I'm replying to something and it occurs to me that this
requires a lot more time and effort and consideration before reply.
Sometimes things get lost in the shuffle. Another possible explanation
is that I either didn't have any specific rebuttal to your points, or
that I agreed with them entirely.=20

I *do* have a tendency to be defensive. It's one thing when someone says
'hey, what about X', and it's another when he says 'hey, you're wrong'.
Just like in RL, when you have one guy who wants to have an intelligent
conversation and another guy trying to whack you over the head with a
brick, you tend to deal with the guy holding the brick a bit sooner.
Admittedly this sometimes makes me look like an argumentative jerk, but
then again maybe I am. ;)

I also tend to be of the opinion that some of the most interesting
conversations come from people playing the Devil's advocate. Many times
people who attack your arguments from all sides are actually trying to
see how well thought out it is, and determine whether this is a casual
off the cuff concept or a real well-considered opinion.=20

And I get wrapped up in this sometimes. It seems like when I come up
with ideas, they tend to be met with skepticism or outright hostility
(and not just here, either). I've come to expect that, and of course
it's easier to react to an expected outcome than an unexpected one.

It's a double-edged sword; if you do battle with the critics, it
consumes a lot of time and energy. If you ignore them, they can
undermine your efforts drastically. There's a happy medium in there
somewhere, but I haven't found it yet.=20

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 You see me now, a veteran of a thousand psychic wars. I've been=20
 living on the edge so long, where the winds of limbo roar. And=20
 I'm young enough to get involved, too old to see, all the scars=20
 are on the inside; I'm not sure that there's anything left of me
               -- Blue Oyster Cult, "Veteran of the Psychic Wars"
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