09 Feb 2013, 10:10 pm
eric76 wrote:
Whenever someone makes a statement of the form "X is always Y", the statement is rarely true. That means that there are no exceptions in which X is not Y. In most cases, "X is always Y" is nothing more than an absurdly grandiose statement that completely ignores reality.
The question "Do school bullies always become workspace bullies???" is a perfect example. All it takes is one counterexample for the answer to be "NO". Just one counterexample.
If somewhere in the world, there is just one person who was a bully at school who is not a bully in the workspace, then the answer is NO.
Change the word from "always" to "sometimes" and then you just need one example of someone who was a bully at school and who went on to be a bully in the workplace.
The question "Do school bullies always become workspace bullies???" is a perfect example. All it takes is one counterexample for the answer to be "NO". Just one counterexample.
If somewhere in the world, there is just one person who was a bully at school who is not a bully in the workspace, then the answer is NO.
Change the word from "always" to "sometimes" and then you just need one example of someone who was a bully at school and who went on to be a bully in the workplace.
Must we do this? When the literal interpretation is "always" but a sensible human being can extrapolate that as "usually" - can we not just accept that as the default? Even as a stickler for language, I know when to not cause a fuss over an inconsequential detail.
09 Feb 2013, 10:18 pm
BlueMax wrote:
eric76 wrote:
Whenever someone makes a statement of the form "X is always Y", the statement is rarely true. That means that there are no exceptions in which X is not Y. In most cases, "X is always Y" is nothing more than an absurdly grandiose statement that completely ignores reality.
The question "Do school bullies always become workspace bullies???" is a perfect example. All it takes is one counterexample for the answer to be "NO". Just one counterexample.
If somewhere in the world, there is just one person who was a bully at school who is not a bully in the workspace, then the answer is NO.
Change the word from "always" to "sometimes" and then you just need one example of someone who was a bully at school and who went on to be a bully in the workplace.
The question "Do school bullies always become workspace bullies???" is a perfect example. All it takes is one counterexample for the answer to be "NO". Just one counterexample.
If somewhere in the world, there is just one person who was a bully at school who is not a bully in the workspace, then the answer is NO.
Change the word from "always" to "sometimes" and then you just need one example of someone who was a bully at school and who went on to be a bully in the workplace.
Must we do this? When the literal interpretation is "always" but a sensible human being can extrapolate that as "usually" - can we not just accept that as the default? Even as a stickler for language, I know when to not cause a fuss over an inconsequential detail.
The purpose of language is to communicate accurately and easily. Making false statements and expecting everyone hearing those false statements to read into it that you really don't mean what you say amounts to being a total failure in communication.
By the way, if someone is trying to con you, one way of doing it and covering their asses at the same time is to make statements that are factually correct but that the audience will misinterpret in predictable ways by reading things into the statements that are simply not there.
09 Feb 2013, 10:32 pm
Okay, for you, maybe the OP will rephrase the question to, "How often do school bullies grow up to become workplace bullies?"
Something bigger than Boolean YES or NO.
Now maybe we can tackle the real task at hand...
04 Mar 2016, 12:13 pm
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04 Mar 2016, 3:14 pm
Benthedemon007 wrote:
Well, Donald Trump had to have started somewhere.
mittwilly the plastic Mormon, most recently of high dudgeon regarding The Rump, when he was a high schooler, got his gang of thugs together and attacked a gay student with a pair of scissors. imagine that, a bully [mitt] calling another bully [trump] a bully.
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04 Mar 2016, 3:57 pm
