# How are people so stupid? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 21, 2011, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-so-stupid/586280 "2011-06-21T12:32:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-so-stupid/586280/41 "2011-06-23T03:06:03Z")
> [@silk1976](#): > > Sure, leave a VM, and then in the email followup indicate that a VM was left. > > I don’t know about your industry, but in mine people generally get to the point right away - so this exchanging of pleasantries idea, I dont know what you’re talking about. 🙂 > > If I call someone and speak to them on the phone, and they aren’t paying attention - well, there are some things I can control, and some things I can’t. But I can tell you I usually get a better response when talking on the phone and followup via email rather than just relying on email, which may be read on a smart phone while in traffic and being a medium that is easily skipped over. People are generally inundated with email so it’s all noise. The pleasantries are generally ‘Good morning. How are you? … Fine, thanks.’ ‘Okay, thanks, nice talking to you’. My point is that I have never had a phone call that lasted less than a minute and I can whip out an email in fifteen seconds (I can type). “Good morning - do you have the dates of the last three EC meetings? TY.” The real benefit to email is that of course the recipient does not have those dates at the finger tip, but will have to look them up. S/he can look them up and get back to me when it is convenient. However, you have a point about people reading their emails when they cannot respond and never getting back to them. Stupid annoying habit. But never leave me a voice mail - I never remember to check it. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-so-stupid/586280/42 "2011-06-23T07:02:47Z")
People _can_ be pretty stupid, but I don’t think the example in the OP is necessarily indicative of stupidity. Obviously I don’t know the person and whether this is a consistent pattern with them or not. But it’s an example of a lack of attention to detail, which can have any number of causes. We live in a world where we’re completely overwhelmed with information, much of it irrelevant or rambling, so out of necessity we gloss over a lot of it. Generally careful and meticulous people such as you and I, **Anaamika** , consistently pick up and retain more than the average Joe, and noting this can certainly be frustrating. But can you honestly say you’ve never missed something important that was said to you because your thought train took your attention off the speaker? It’s about 100 times worse with e-mail, because it’s generally seen as a lower-priority form of communication and many people have countless e-mails to churn through every day. And I really don’t want to burst your balloon, but it’s _possible_ that _your particular_ e-mail may not seem nearly as important to someone else as it is to you. You’re clearly an intelligent, conscientious person who pays great attention to detail. In my book, that makes you awesome and among the linchpins of society. But getting frustrated/annoyed at others for not displaying the same traits is worse than a fruitless endeavour - it actually harms _you_ (and only you). One thing that’s certain though is that they’re not doing it to annoy you. They are probably just overwhelmed. I don’t know if the person in the OP is overwhelmed because they have much more on their plate that is higher priority for them, or because they just process the world at a slower rate than you. But whatever the case, if you take the high road and show some patience and forgiveness (and I know it ain’t easy sometimes) you’ll feel a hell of a lot better at the end of the day. I speak from personal experience. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-so-stupid/586280/43 "2011-06-24T17:20:01Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > Bullets or numbers do help sometimes. I read that and thought "Yeah, and the number is .45 " and then I realized you were talking about bullet _points_. ---
**Author:** ![Daylate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Daylate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylate)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-so-stupid/586280/44 "2011-06-24T18:41:18Z")
My advice here, guaranteed to save you Dopers much time, is NEVER use the “send e-mail” option of the “Contact Us” choice on a companies’ troubleshooting website. The cretin who reads these emails will never ever read more than the first sentence, and base his advice solely on that. This happens 100% of the time, no matter how clearly you try to delineate each piece of information in your email. Long experience talking here. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-so-stupid/586280/45 "2011-06-24T19:03:01Z")
I work in a lab that receives pathology specimens, and take lots of phone calls requesting supplies. Nine times out of ten, the requester is down to their very last whatever or they’re completely out, and we need to get them something ASAP. Why does everyone wait until it’s a damn emergency? I hate to think how these people deal with buying their household toilet paper. ---
**Author:** ![Dpimi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Dpimi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dpimi)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-so-stupid/586280/46 "2011-06-24T19:39:48Z")
Everytime I ask myself this, I wonder what people are looking at me and saying, “How can he be so stupid?” ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-so-stupid/586280/47 "2011-06-24T20:10:48Z")
Most emails are hurridly written, rarely double checked for accuracy, and then become one of a hundred(s) unread to plow through before 9:00am. I depended on emails sent from Asia to the US for tons of critical time sensitive issues that had to be answered overnight owing to time zones (and it usually wasn’t practical to call unless I wanted to be on the phone every evening at 10:00 pm). A couple of key things I learned really helped getting productive email responses. 1. state the request in the first sentence and usually in the subject line 2. then explain or give background if needed 3. I find bullet points much more effective than paragraphs 4. make it really simple for the person to make a decision, find all supporting information, have a background, etc, to forestall the “need more info because I’m clearing my inbox right now” punt 5. If you can, one subject per email For example, emails like the following had a much greater success rate of being answered in a timely fashion: Subject line: URGENT, need yes/no answer today on Widget pricing Dear Boss from Hell Answer this fucking question yes or no? Deadline is today. You need to make a yes/no answer on this really important question TODAY because - reason 1 - reason 2 - reason 3 Here is the background blah blah blah and see the attached emails for more detail. thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Amblydoper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@Amblydoper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amblydoper)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-so-stupid/586280/48 "2011-06-26T19:25:01Z")
What if you simply don’t respond? Say **Supervisor** sends out an email about _The Mission_ to **Subordinate** , and **Subordinate** replies, asking for information about _The Mission_ that was in the original email. **Supervisor** simply does not respond, and goes about his/her day. Next week, **Boss** asks **Subordinate** why he/she failed _The Mission_, and **Subordinate** says that **Supervisor** did not give him/her all the information. **Supervisor** can show **Boss** the email containing the information about _The Mission_, the **Subordinate** gets fired for be an idiot. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-so-stupid/586280/49 "2011-06-28T00:51:09Z")
> [@Amblydoper](#): > > What if you simply don’t respond? > > Say **Supervisor** sends out an email about _The Mission_ to **Subordinate** , … My favorite approach, but it has problems. 90 % of the time, it’s the boss not reading the email. 9 % of the time, it’s a non-boss/non-report not reading the email. 100 % of the time you will be told that it was your responsibility to ensure the work was completed on time. 101 % people will call you out on passive/agressive behavior. Replying after 10 p.m or before 5 a.m. - by forwarding the original email - is much more effective. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-so-stupid/586280.md?page=2)