However, it’s well known that people have different palates, and I think this accounts for this issue in a baker not realizing her food is horrible. It probably tastes fine to her and if she has a terrible palate then all food might taste the same to her.
I think it’s similar with people who think they can sing but can’t. If you have a tin ear, how would you know it? (Unless you listen to people who tell you you’re terrible.)
Bob Dylan made a career of it.
It’s been years since I’ve read it, but I believe in Code Complete there’s a note saying that about 30% of people naturally “get it”, and that everyone else has to work at it. This mirrors my experience, not necessarily the percentage, but the “some people obviously get it, other’s don’t”. I’ll never forget the time I replaced 100+ lines of code with three.
We used to have one guy on this project who is still with the company and thinks he is really hot shit. I run into him at company events sometimes, and he is such a smug prick. He doesn’t know that most of us here can’t stand maintaining the things he’s written because they’re garbage, and that we’ve rewritten a good chunk of his work. I hate that guy.
Does this include people who are jerks and no one likes them, but people are polite to them, because who wants to be the on who says “Your personality sucks,” and so this person goes around thinking they’re the most popular person in the room, when really, everyone wishes they’d leave, but maybe feels a little sorry for them? Sometimes they eventually do something really assholish, and then people start ignoring them, but other times they go on for years like this.
Sometimes I worry I’m the jerk in the room. I worry enough that I end up being very quiet sometimes.
We had a friend who used to bring us her “famous chocolate chip cookies”. Problem was, she and her husband were chain smokers, so everything in their house, including the flour she baked with, was saturated with the stink, which translated to the taste. Nasty.
This.
American Idol was extremely instructive on how passionately people can believe in their own abilities when they suck massively. I was always suspicious that it was a setup. But apparently it’s for real.
I just threw up in my mouth a little. Thanks.
LOL! This would have made a great Andy Griffith Show episode!
Andy, grinning: “Darn it, Barney, if that don’t beat all! I’m so glad to hear you say that! Oh yes, gladder than a kid with a new nickel to spend! You see, I was just coming over here to talk to you about that very thing. Seems that some folk on the team wanted me to ask you if you’d consider not coming by any more. Why? Well, I’d say they are intimidated. That’s right, intimidated. See, they understood from the get go that you are way far, outside their league. Oh, yes, I’ve noticed it myself. Why, it’s just as plain as the nose on your face! See, the team would be embarrassed to be seen playing with someone so far out of their league. You’d make 'em all look bad! It’s only natural for 'em to feel that way.”
Barney, puffed up - “Well, Andy, I tried to tone it back some, I really did, but when you’re dealing with this kind of talent, well, it’s hard to hide it.”
Andy, still grinning:“I’ll go break it to 'em real easy, Barn, you just don’t worry about a thing. Not a thing!”
Fade to black
Roll credits
Please tell me you did it like that, BubbaDog!
Luckily for us, she brought them in plastic bags, so they went directly into the trash without being opened. Other than the first time, that is, when I grabbed one out of the bag and took a bite, then promptly spit it into the sink.
That’s just plain silly. Whatever he did Dylan made a CAREER of it.
Would it be reasonable to suppose that everybody is really lousy at something that [they] think [they] are fabulous at? [“they” meaning the singular gender-neutral third-person personal pronoun.]
And if so, then (almost by definition) we are not self-aware of it?
And if so, it is also probable that our friends (if any) won’t tell us about it?
And if all that is so, would it be reasonably rational for each of us – myself included – to suppose that we – myself included – are crappy at something that we think we are fabulous at?
And further, if we would like to be more self-aware of such things, then this question arises: How would we find out?
Now it happens that I myself do not know of anything I’m really awful at, that I think I’m great at. But it seems reasonable to me to suppose that there is some such thing that I’m awful at, but think I’m great at. And I don’t expect my friend(s) (if any) to tell me. So how would I go about finding out?
Back to the OP and the baking thing.
I think it’s possible that one can be top at cooking certain foods that have special ingredients, BUT, you have to actually LIKE that kind of food to appreciate it. For example I wouldnt know good or bad sushi since I dont like sushi.
Take pancakes. I’ve been to houses where the cook wants to go all fancy with spices and sticking stuff in the pancakes but I just want basic pancakes.
Or take caviar. Yeah I know people SAY its so awesome but I personally find it gross. So yeah, my pallette probably isnt the best for judging good or bad caviar.
So back to the OP on the baking thing, they might be a person who just tries too hard with putting exotic things in their food but if you just said “please make me just some basic chocolate chip cookies” they might do a good job.
The same way that my mother manages to believe that “cook it till you’re sure it’s dead”, as applied to 99% of her cooking, is appropriate. The remaining 1% is some meats and my brother’s MiL believes in using the same technique with them, too. Give either one a recipe, they will add more cooking time “just in case”. Oh, and when in doubt? “Pour some complicated sauce on it” (never mind if the sauce is properly cooked - well, at least it will have been cooked thoroughly…).
Both of them will eat things properly cooked by other people, say “ohmygshsgood” while shoveling it in, both of them will, if they see those people cooking, criticize that we’re not cooking things enough.
As for the op: I certainly know and work with people like this. One particular coworker is quite new to my area of expertise in the newsroom but has worked in television for some time.
He has made it a habit to try to rewrite all the SOPs in the newsroom to fit his idea of how things should be done, and has assumed an air of authority when in reality he can’t even complete the core job requirements of our job.
Because he’s affecting our product we have been obligated to try to correct him, but he will not listen. I have never seen the like of it.
We must be related on our mother’s side somehow. My mother didn’t understand the concept of overcooking. I think in her mind ‘done’ was an absolute condition, food couldn’t be ‘more done’.
Anyway, I’ve dealt with the delusional types, you just have to gracefully accept what they offer (or as I do let your wife handle that), then throw it away. Trust me, there’s nothing you can do to improve the situation. And Og help if your spouse has such delusions.
I worked with this guy back in the day who was a decent enough guy, but damn, was he incompetent as a computer programmer. Our manager assigned me to look at the guy’s code and help him along.
Ok, remember this was COBOL days, which means your code is basically structured English language. This guy was performing sections that consisted of nothing but performing another section that did nothing but perform a single line of code. Why? Well, because we might add something there someday (not requirements, just his gut feeling). Bad naming of sections and variables (they need to be descriptive of the process and the data, not just “10-Field-B”, which tells the next guy who has to look at your code NOTHING of what that field is and what it is for.
Well, apparently he got really upset with my coaching, because he complained to our boss about how mean I was being for criticizing his code, so I was taken off doing that. One month later he was fired for being a bad programmer. :smack:
(Translation: He objected to the one person who was charged with fixing his ass and that was it for him.)
Then he got a job as a contract programmer for an Indian Casino. A few months later he was fired for incompetence. BUT, they bought him back in a much much lower paid position, because apparently they felt bad about him moving 150 miles to work for them then firing his ass.
Last I heard, he went back to teaching, which is what he did before someone convinced him that he’d make a great computer programmer.
Moral of the Story, beyond the Dunning-Krueger effect: If your boss assigns one of your work friends to help you, and that friend is being tough on you, FUCKING LISTEN, because your ass is on the line, not theirs.
They have a name for this sort of thing in publishing: the slush pile. Not that there aren’t good things in the slush pile, but the majority of it is dreary and mediocre. I know some people who read slush and they all reported it’s a mind-numbing job. (Luckily, they aren’t required to read the entire manuscript.) The issue has gotten worse since the advent of word processing and electronic submissions, so now there are very few publishers that take unsolicited manuscripts.
The single most memorable personal example of this I came across was when we were forming a writer’s group. Someone showed up and made it quite clear he thought himself a terrific writer and one of the best “title men” (for his ability to create titles of books) in the business. He left in the middle of the first reading, mumbling that “these people are not up to my talent.”*
By the way, the “great” title he mentioned was “How to Save a Bundle on Your Car Insurance.”
He also mentioned that when he visited publishers, editors followed him around to take notes. I have no doubt this is true, though I’m sure it wasn’t for the reason he imagined. I know that at least two writers in our group wrote stories based upon him (and not favorably).
*As an aside, I’ve never heard a professional writer belittle another writer in this manner – no matter how poorly they wrote.
At my last gig I worked with one of my former friends and classmates. Let’s call him Biff. (Biff went off one day about gay marriage and after that the friend part was stricken from the record.) Anyway, one day Biff asked me to help him debug something he had written. Since we were working on completely different things, he explained to me what he was trying to do as I looked over his shoulder. He had named his (twenty-six) variables A1 through A26. I said, “Dude. I cannot help you with this.”
Fast forward several months, and I had been hired by my current job which was about a 50% pay increase. They asked me if I knew any other developers they could hire. I said, "Nope. I sure don’t.
Dedicated to those who have mentioned someone like this. Translation mine. Some bits are missing because I have no idea how to translate them. Pico Duarte / Duarte Mountain is the highest mountain in the Greater Antilles.
I have a cousin, Baldemiro,
and no idea how to classify him.
I have a cousin, Baldemiro,
who tans with the May sunshine,
who drives in reverse
who is a poet and sculptor
who cooks without recipes
anything he wants and more.
I have a cousin, Baldemiro,
who now dreams of being in Congress,
who is a judge, has a bachelor’s,
is a surgeon and a good actor,
staff reporter,
anything he wants and more.
I’ve got a cousin
who knows Michael Jordan and is an actor
who breathes underwater and is a painter
who is a sociologist and pilots a plane
I have a cousin, hey I told you
I don’t want to repeat this any more.
Who drives in reverse…
I have a cousin
who wears De la Renta in bulk
who is stronger than Silvester Stallone
who is a judge, a surgeon and a good singer
I have a cousin, man, I told you
I don’t want to repeat this any more
Who has climbed Duarte mountain
who is a champion athlete
who dives without tanks
anything he wants…
I have a cousin…
who breathes underwater and is a doctor,
who knocks on a door and claims he’s playing the trombone
who is a singer, a footballer and a boxer
I have a cousin, man, I told you
I don’t want to repeat this any more.
[quote=“Nava, post:38, topic:748415”]
Dedicated to those who have mentioned someone like this…
We can only hope he’s not your cousin.
My wife’s best friend’s husband is a fitness expert and an elite level cycling competitor. Except that he’s not any of those things.
He is crazy out of shape (and looks it and always has been) and has never competed in anything (going all the way back beyond high school). He does purchase a ton of random fitness items (that he doesn’t use) and crazy expensive cycling items (that again, are never used). When pressed about his cycling accomplishments he was always just about to enter a race (but then got some sort of injury) or just about to start training for something or other (but then got sick or hurt, etc.).
He has a full sleeve and full leg of poorly done cycling tattoos (that are randomly punctuated with fitness motivational sayings) so he is committed to this… It is weird to see him on Facebook talking about all of his fitness and cycling accomplishments, how he can help train others to be like him, and reposting ‘motivational’ photos while knowing he is completely delusional.