What is with the spouting numbers? You’ve been giving us your grade point average for weeks now, and your numeric grades for each class, updated almost daily: “My math grade’s about to go up half a point”. And in one thread, you actually gave your grade to three decimal places. And now your typing speed?
Someday you’ll learn how little anyone cares about all these numbers. I just hope you’ll be able to cope when you do. But until then, take some free advice: Just stop. Whenever you’re tempted to reference a number to prove how smart or talented you are, DON’T.
NEVER tell ANYone your grades, typing speed, bank balance, Bacon-Erdös number, cost of your house, top speed of your car, number of Likes, anything. You will be announcing that you’re shallow and self-possessed.
Alright, I agree and acknowledge this advice. Clearly I was being unreasonable in that thread and as you may have noticed I have calmed down about that topic significantly over the past few weeks.
However I don’t agree with:
Yeah, you don’t talk about money with other people. I am smart enough to know that much. However, it was only logical to share my typing speed numerically when someone had to bring that up. I wasn’t going to say, “I’m a fast typist,” that doesn’t really mean anything. What’s fast for one person is not fast for another person. Therefore, numbers are the only unbiased way to present information. This is just my style of expressing things, and I’ve been doing it for years. Now, I try not to brag obviously so I don’t talk about money and I wouldn’t talk about the top speed of my car, and things like that. But, when you’re talking about college, it’s only natural to share my GPA. In fact, it was necessary and relevant.
It’s just how I am; I’m a very numerical person. I gave facts in raw numbers because there’s no better way in my opinion to express facts. So while I agree with the fact that I shouldn’t show how talented I am through numbers (and I don’t do this in real life normally), I don’t with how I shouldn’t express facts numerically. And there are people that care about numbers; maybe you don’t.
So I disagree with this. And at this point, if you’re going to criticize me for little things like grammatical/spelling mistakes even when I have told you that I usually don’t make those mistakes, and when I do it’s due to smartphone use, or if you’re going to criticize me for my use of numbers, go ahead. Just remember that I’m not going to listen to any of this nonsense. I acknowledged the advice and complaints given to me about college (and other things like the whole sex topic) because there I know I acted obnoxious there, however for such irrelevant and nonsense things, just no.
Hey, it was low-hanging fruit. Someone had to pick it before it plopped on the ground like goose shit, a substance in which Big T’s posts are highly abundant.
Have you ever been on a message board before? You’re going to have to grow a thicker skin, or leave. Get used to it – most posters will happily tear you a new asshole when the opportunity arises. Here, proper use of language is prized, and you’ll get grief from most of you don’t use it. Not me of course, I am as far above the average poster as the Moon is from Earth, and so I don’t indulge in the intellectual snobbery that is so common here. I stick to important things, like penis size.
It’s only ‘‘irrelevant nonsense’’ if you don’t give a shit about how you come across to others. Some people genuinely do not give a shit and that’s fine, but not giving a shit if you come across as an arrogant dick requires you to accept that some people are going to think you’re an arrogant dick. I have found on this board, particularly when it comes to issues of personality and character, that the majority opinion is pretty spot-on, and can be a pretty useful wake-up call if my head gets stuck too far up my own ass. Instead of taking all this personally you might consider that.
Advice from a former jerk who has learned to care about others, and their opinions (learned through some quite painful lessons, from people who cared enough to see the potential in, and deal with, a self-absorbed kid).
How ironic is it to be given advice on how not to be so self-centered, and discard it because you’re too self-centered?
It’s on par with using bad grammar in a post to explain that you don’t use bad grammar, except in the select cases where you use bad grammar,
PS, open letter to anyone who says “It’s the damn autocorrect.” That’s not a viable excuse. The words are still on the screen and you’re still looking at it. Take the courteous extra 3 seconds to erase it and type it over again. If you’re SO hard up on time that you can’t do that, then just freakin wait until you’re back at home in your undies and have more downtime. I HATE people who use the autocorrect excuse. If it happens once? I’ll buy it. When you’re a repeat offender, it just means you’re a jackass.
Mmmmh, I usually read my messages over BEFORE I send it, just to be sure it is correct. But you go ahead and just hit send after poking that screen.
You see, here’s the thing - you have a problem with constructive criticism, as in, you have no clue that it is an attempt to help you. You take it as an attack on your precious self without stopping and thinking about what is being said to you.
How in the world are you going to handle constructive criticism from the professors at MIT or wherever, if you can’t handle it correctly on a message board?
I know you’re young, and feel good about your accomplishments, hell, everyone does. But, there is a difference between confidence and arrogance, and you wander into arrogance too much, sometimes into bragging territory. That is really the crux of what everyone is trying to beat into you.
No one is going to give you the secret of getting into MIT, because there is no secret. Hard work, dedication, sacrifice and luck are the paths to success in this world - that’s it, there is no other way.
You see, this is called constructive criticism, yet you go all out to take it as an attack. digs actually gave you damn good advice here, and someday you will realize this to be true.
That is why I actually try to have good grammar and spelling now, even on my phone. Once every five or ten posts, I still miss a letter if I am on my phone though. But I try. Most people haven’t been commenting on my grammar anymore anyways.
This made me laugh.