One of the things I hate so much is how, when I make a presentation wherein I explain how "1+1=2," at the end of my presentation in the Q&A portion, I get asked the question "so, what is 1+1?" Or, "you should try to find the answer to 1+1."
But I already did, stupid!!! You were not listening!
Anyway, I've received these kinds of stupid questions at least thrice as I can best recall, and for at least two of those three times, I felt it was a matter of "I have a more advanced degree than you" mentality on the part of the asker.
No, stupid. A more advanced degree doesn't make you better than me.
Argh, I so hate this a lot!!!
So now, what if my presentation skills are lacking and so they actually did not understand my presentation? Well then, these askers were being rude or impolite. They should have asked "have you explained what 1+1 is?" first, before pointing their condescending fingers at me. Otherwise, these are only two out of around 20 people who did not understand my presentation. So it's not me, it's them!
But actually in some cases, it's usually the 14 out of the 20 people who do not understand my presentation and so they do not ask any questions at all. When somebody actually asks me a very stupid question, it's usually someone who has a certain level of understanding better than most. But again in those cases, I felt that it's just that they think I was the stupid one and I should be thankful to them for those stupid questions, comments, or suggestions.
Anyways, it's unfortunate that there are people with this "I'm a PhD and you don't therefore you suck" attitude and prove justification indeed for those who have the "I don't have an advanced degree because it is not necessary" attitude. Unfortunately for me, none of these two groups of egomaniacs who rule their own two worlds can ever understand how one person has found how an advanced degree actually helped him do better while in the industry, and how the industry has helped him become ready for the work to obtain those advanced degrees, because they never experienced both.
I wish to say something about this blog also. When a small portion of the audience did not understand what one said as a presenter, the full responsibility is in the presenter to clarify the meaning in those participants. When we describe things, we do not transfer meaning. Meaning is composed inside an individual as communication signals are received from the outside. And meaning are influenced by various filters unique to the individual such as beliefs and values. So when someone replied by asking a "stupid" question, he or she may be honest in bringing out the question because it is possible the question emerged from his reflections based on his belief systems related to the received information from the presenter. To say a behavior or an individual is -stupid- has a superficial basis on the part of the presenter. One can say it is a shallow judgment and is based on the presenter's belief system alone without considering, exploring and learning from the other person from the audience.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the very good points. It seems I failed again at communicating everything, but it was difficult to describe the whole context -- i.e. to include also body language, tone of voice, prior history, and so on when these certain people asked some of these questions. In more sane or more learned environments (e.g. international conferences), I never get such kinds of questions or a condescending tone, and so on. I guess that's also the point; this was not in a public setting. But I appreciate being asked questions, and of course, as you pointed out, I have to make things clear to the asker. At the same time, the situation I was talking about, wasn't about meaning. It was just all about one statement, a fact, that I had shown in my presentation, and that at the end, was asked again to repeat the same statement or fact. Anyways, there really are just different kinds of people, and I can't really do much about these kinds of askers. Of course, I reply to them with all diplomacy.
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