# Code\_Grey, quit spamming GQ with Bullshit **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 20, 2009, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936 "2009-12-20T08:13:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936/101 "2011-05-19T16:40:11Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > Not sure if trolling or just very stupid. Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936/102 "2011-05-19T16:50:46Z")
The guys is an expert about how everything should be done, except when he has to actually do something, he can’t. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936/103 "2011-05-19T17:07:27Z")
Thankfully, \*\*Colibri \*\*put that race thread out of its (our) misery! ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936/104 "2011-05-19T17:13:20Z")
Damn, now I’ll never know what happens when you feed an angry armenian a lemon. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936/105 "2011-05-19T17:14:38Z")
“Angry Armenian” is redundant. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936/106 "2011-05-19T17:29:26Z")
> [@code\_grey](#): > > I don’t watch paint job commercials because I don’t watch TV at all. > > There is a difference between “straightforward answers” and “sufficiently informative answers”. If I find the answer “paint job is hard because you also need to do grinding” not sufficiently informative, then I am going to ask for clarification about what “grinding” is and what’s hard about it. The same applies to other topics - I want to better understand how things work, not just listen to a soundbite explanation. Willfully ignorant is what I call it. Jesus it is like you have never been outside in all you life. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936/107 "2011-05-19T18:05:21Z")
> [@code\_grey](#): > > I don’t watch paint job commercials because I don’t watch TV at all. I think \*\*code\_grey \*\*may be institutionalized, or sequestered from regular contact with normal adult humans and society in general in some other way, perhaps through disability. I hope that I am wrong and that he is just a fucking idiot. I apologise if I am right. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936/108 "2011-05-19T18:17:11Z")
> [@code\_grey](#): > > There is a difference between “straightforward answers” and “sufficiently informative answers”. If I find the answer “paint job is hard because you also need to do grinding” not sufficiently informative, then I am going to ask for clarification about what “grinding” is and what’s hard about it. The same applies to other topics - I want to better understand how things work, not just listen to a soundbite explanation. How can you expect to improve a process like repainting cars when you don’t even understand something as basic to the process as what grinding is and why it’s necessary? I mean, the idea that industrial processes can be improved is certainly valid. But if you think you can improve a process, the first thing you need to do is to get intimately familiar with how it works. Ideally by _doing it yourself_. If that’s not possible, at least you can watch someone else doing it and ask them questions why they do things a certain way. They may get annoyed with you, but then you might notice inefficiencies that they don’t just because they’ve always done things that way. (And if that’s not possible, at least go to YouTube and look at videos of someone painting a car or whatever process you think you can improve.) You really can’t understand a process by posting to a message board and getting verbal replies. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936/109 "2011-05-19T18:51:24Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > They may get annoyed with you… I think we can be pretty sure about that. ---
**Author:** ![code\_grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@code\_grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/code_grey)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936/110 "2011-05-19T19:54:50Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I mean, the idea that industrial processes can be improved is certainly valid. But if you think you can improve a process, the first thing you need to do is to get intimately familiar with how it works. Ideally by _doing it yourself_. If that’s not possible, at least you can watch someone else doing it and ask them questions why they do things a certain way. They may get annoyed with you, but then you might notice inefficiencies that they don’t just because they’ve always done things that way. (And if that’s not possible, at least go to YouTube and look at videos of someone painting a car or whatever process you think you can improve.) You really can’t understand a process by posting to a message board and getting verbal replies. so who would be more willing to answer my questions about an industrial process - the random guy who I am likely to find down at the typical workshop I would drop by, or people here at SD? Notice that even the techie dopers are a bit irritated with my systematic questioning. How much more so a guy who is busy with his work and also closer to the median IQ in the car painting profession? It’s also a lot easier to convince 10 people say 3 things each than convincing one guy say 30 things. Surprising, but true 😉 In any event, so the logistics of me doing first hand research at a car repair shop are at present not realistic. But if you happen to have a work shop involved in doing something I may be interested in and you wouldn’t mind have me fight my ignorance of that process and discuss with you why things are done this way and why don’t people try to do so-and-so in some other hypothetical way, then that can be arranged 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936/111 "2011-05-19T20:52:36Z")
> [@code\_grey](#): > > Notice that even the techie dopers are a bit irritated with my systematic questioning. People are more than “a bit irritated” with your antics. You’re well on your way to becoming a joke here. This is not a good thing. Don’t you think you should consider some of the comments in this thread and change your behavior accordingly? ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936/112 "2011-05-19T20:52:41Z")
Possible car grinding questions that have not been asked yet: Could they just use a grinder that is as large as the entire car and just take 1 pass? What if they just parked the car near the ocean and let the sand in the wind effectively grind the car, could this work? What if the auto painting shop pre-ground 1 car of each make and model and then when the customer arrives they trade their car for the pre-ground car and then the painting can begin right away? Is there some way we can combine the process of grinding a car and checking for Tungsten in a coin? What if there was a Chinese auto-body shop where we could ship the car, and because labor is so cheap, they could grind the car, paint it and then ship it back? Wait, even better, instead of having to ship all the way to China, just stop the ship 1/2 across the Pacific, do the grinding and painting there on the ship and then bring it back - just saved 1 full trip across the ocean. Wait, wait, wait - even better - Leave the ship in port, hire only people of Chinese Race Temperament ™ because their labor is inexpensive and do the work on the ship in port - just saved 2 trips across the ocean. ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936/113 "2011-05-19T21:02:50Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > Wait, wait, wait - even better - Leave the ship in port, hire only people of Chinese Race Temperament ™ because their labor is inexpensive and do the work on the ship in port - just saved 2 trips across the ocean. If you brought enough of the CRT people here I could just harvest them for export and make a killing. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936/114 "2011-05-19T21:44:31Z")
> [@code\_grey](#): > > so who would be more willing to answer my questions about an industrial process - the random guy who I am likely to find down at the typical workshop I would drop by, or people here at SD? Notice that even the techie dopers are a bit irritated with my systematic questioning. How much more so a guy who is busy with his work and also closer to the median IQ in the car painting profession? I certainly think you could get your questions answered in person by a professional in the business if you politely explain that you’re doing research into their processes. (And by politely, I mean not assuming that the staff is stupid.) Perhaps you could spend a day or more shadowing someone in the shop. What you’re doing now amounts to armchair industrial engineering and won’t get you anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936/115 "2011-05-19T21:48:17Z")
> [@code\_grey](#): > > so who would be more willing to answer my questions about an industrial process - the random guy who I am likely to find down at the typical workshop I would drop by, or people here at SD? Notice that even the techie dopers are a bit irritated with my systematic questioning. How much more so a guy who is busy with his work and also closer to the median IQ in the car painting profession? > > It’s also a lot easier to convince 10 people say 3 things each than convincing one guy say 30 things. Surprising, but true 😉 > > In any event, so the logistics of me doing first hand research at a car repair shop are at present not realistic. But if you happen to have a work shop involved in doing something I may be interested in and you wouldn’t mind have me fight my ignorance of that process and discuss with you why things are done this way and why don’t people try to do so-and-so in some other hypothetical way, then that can be arranged 😛 IMHO, the sheer volume of your questions dilutes the importance of each one, and the attractiveness of each individual question as a place to invest any amount of time. Many of the questions you post are intriguing—every time I see a new **code\_grey** question, I wonder what is this great master plan that is brewing in your mind, using every aspect of the 'Dope to provide insight into plausibility of different business cases. But then you jump from asking about automated testing technology to industrial processes to supply chain management. I have no idea of your background, but your questions strike me as naive—each one of these businesses have substantial depth to them, and it is difficult for someone to build up any degree of understanding of the ins and outs of just one, let alone several, yet you act as if you know the secret all of those silly business people never figured out. For example, to consider your questions regarding motorcycle parts: it’s as if you think they just came up with this business last week, and haven’t optimized their process. Maybe it seems to you that there is a manufacturer and a buyer, and it should be simple like that, no? The reality is that there are loads of middle men that are involved in any kind of manufacturing-to-sales-floor exercise. There are salesmen, there are distributors, there are dealers, there are distribution layers between the factory and the distributors who ship to the stores, there are probably all kinds of arcane pricing incentives coming from the factory, from stores, from state or federal government, and many other things. And if you asked one or two such questions, you would surely find a 'Doper who had the expertise who would gladly speak volumes on the subject. The problem is, you are asking so many of them that it just doesn’t seem worth the trouble to go into any depth on them. Many people answer questions about things in their area of expertise because they feel they are feeding someone’s intellectual hunger in a subject they are passionate about. It’s hard to believe you are really passionate about any of these questions when the next unrelated question is three lines up the page in GQ. I believe I have, without noticing the identity of the OP, provided a few sincere answers in the past in your threads, but after the fact I felt kind of duped, as if I spent a decent amount of time considering my answer and it was to some thread that had questionable sincerity. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936/116 "2011-05-19T22:31:21Z")
Just don’t have the car grinding done by any angry Armenians. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936/117 "2011-05-19T22:42:58Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I haven’t paid attention to his other threads, but I went back and looked and I did notice that his were all the threads that I had seen the titles of and didn’t bother opening because they looked so stupid. Do we really need another \*\*Jinx \*\*or \*\*Ralph \*\*around here? At least when Ralph asks stupid questions in GQ, I know it’s only because he’s really stupid and doesn’t know the answer and can’t figure out how to use the Google or Wikipedia. ---
**Author:** ![code\_grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@code\_grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/code_grey)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936/118 "2011-05-19T23:16:58Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > And if you asked one or two such questions, you would surely find a 'Doper who had the expertise who would gladly speak volumes on the subject. The problem is, you are asking so many of them that it just doesn’t seem worth the trouble to go into any depth on them. > Many people answer questions about things in their area of expertise because they feel they are feeding someone’s intellectual hunger in a subject they are passionate about. It’s hard to believe you are really passionate about any of these questions when the next unrelated question is three lines up the page in GQ. > > I believe I have, without noticing the identity of the OP, provided a few sincere answers in the past in your threads, but after the fact I felt kind of duped, as if I spent a decent amount of time considering my answer and it was to some thread that had questionable sincerity. what’s with the many references to emotions in a single post? You feel this, you feel that. Do I have “intellectual hunger” “passionate about” or don’t I have it. Somehow it makes for strange reading, coming from a techie on a public forum. If my intellectual interests are a bit broader than what you find normal, then what’s it to you? Do you only answer questions “for guidance and edification” as a favor to people who think like you and sound like you? I personally don’t find asking questions, answering other people’s questions and writing follow up clarification posts in my own threads to be a taxing task to be only engaged in out of noble purity of heart, as a service to humanity at large. To me it’s not a big effort. Even in the case of some of my own more involved threads, reading through the last 5 replies and doing a coherence check against the previous posts is not much work either. Yeah, I mean, a good exercise in **critical thinking** and stuff 😉 If you view this activity in such a different light, well, what can I do. If you don’t enjoy writing on the forum as much as I do and if your _noblesse_ just doesn’t _oblige_ in this particular case, all things intellectual hunger-wise considered, then I guess too bad for the number of responses I will get in my threads ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936/119 "2011-05-20T01:55:02Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Giving this one a Mick Foley Bump because the guest of honor is still spamming GQ with bullshit. And I find that annoying. **Oakminster** : I’ve been here over a year, now, and **Code\_Grey** wound up on my “fool list” rather rapidly. You didn’t. Why did you have to bump this zombie and take first place on that list? I can’t believe that first place on _my_ “fool list” is so important that anyone would _try_ to get onto it. But you did… Congratulations, Fool. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936/120 "2011-05-20T02:30:44Z")
> [@code\_grey](#): > > what’s with the many references to emotions in a single post? You feel this, you feel that. Do I have “intellectual hunger” “passionate about” or don’t I have it. Somehow it makes for strange reading, coming from a techie on a public forum. > > If my intellectual interests are a bit broader than what you find normal, then what’s it to you? Do you only answer questions “for guidance and edification” as a favor to people who think like you and sound like you? > > I personally don’t find asking questions, answering other people’s questions and writing follow up clarification posts in my own threads to be a taxing task to be only engaged in out of noble purity of heart, as a service to humanity at large. To me it’s not a big effort. Even in the case of some of my own more involved threads, reading through the last 5 replies and doing a coherence check against the previous posts is not much work either. Yeah, I mean, a good exercise in **critical thinking** and stuff 😉 > > If you view this activity in such a different light, well, what can I do. If you don’t enjoy writing on the forum as much as I do and if your _noblesse_ just doesn’t _oblige_ in this particular case, all things intellectual hunger-wise considered, then I guess too bad for the number of responses I will get in my threads ☹ I’m sorry I bothered to think long enough to compose the note I wrote above. Now that you have confirmed to me what you are, I can move on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/code_grey-quit-spamming-gq-with-bullshit/521936.md?page=7)