# Partially right is totally wrong **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 6, 2013, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701 "2013-12-06T20:00:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701/21 "2013-12-07T07:11:20Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Because often, people don’t correctly remember all the details of the thing they’re describing. No, people just want to post _something_. They’ll seize on the tiniest relationship in the OP, or reinterpret it completely, just so they can post. It’s not important to them that it actually answers the question, just that it gives them an excuse to post something. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701/22 "2013-12-07T07:45:40Z")
Everything the OP writes is partially right. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701/23 "2013-12-07T07:59:33Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Someone will respond “What about a Superball!” :smack: I’m deducing that you don’t work in Software. Every programming group ever, apart from when Microsoft used to run newsgroups, is filled with people who fill up space because the don’t know the answer but won’t shut up. Mostly they hold the illusion that they know better than any person stupid enough to ask a question. Q: Any Question about anything? A: That is a bad question. You should be doing something else instead. You know nothing about [Something that I still find difficult, so obviously you must understand it even less than I do]. Garrrchukkk. Sorry for the rant. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701/24 "2013-12-07T08:02:55Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’d say it was a good example then. You apparently failed to frame your question properly and then complained the answer you got was wrong. > > You’re the one who said you doesn’t want _“an answer that only partially fits the question is of worth”_ and only wants _“an answer that fits all of the qualifications”_. I was pointed out how this could cause you to miss the correct answer you wanted because your question might be flawed. > > Your basic premise is that you don’t know the information you’re seeking, whether it’s the name of an actor or a cocktail. But you’re apparently assuming you have perfect awareness of the parameters of your ignorance and can describe them precisely. That’s generally unlikely - if you don’t know the information itself, you’re probably also a little fuzzy about the related details. How often are you going to know somebody is exactly 6’4" but not know their name? So it’s fair for a listener to guess somebody who’s 6’2" or 6’6". Twist away, if it make you happy. In the first example the unhelpful suggestion was somebody who was 5’9", not 6’2" or 6’6", and the second example was a crossword puzzle answer that _had_ to have an “m” as the first letter and a “t” as the fourth, and it _had_ to have 7 letters. Contrast this specific example with your befuddled attempt to put me in my place: > [@Little Nemo](#): > > You: “I’m trying to remember that cocktail with an Italian name. It starts with a “m” and ends with “ini”. It’s made out of gin and vermouth and there’s an olive in it. Any ideas?” > > Me (thinking): “Well, he can’t be talking about a Martini. That’s an American not an Italian name. And I don’t want to waste his time by suggesting an answer that doesn’t match every one of his specifications.” > > Me: “Sorry, Czarcasm, I can’t help you.” I wasn’t trying to “remember” jack shit in my example, was I? Unless the guy who constructed the crossword did it wrong, the “manhatten” answer could not _possibly_ be right. The next time you want to dissect one of my examples, why don’t you try dissecting one of _my_ examples instead of one of yours, o.k.? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701/25 "2013-12-07T08:04:43Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > I’m deducing that you don’t work in Software. Every programming group ever, apart from when Microsoft used to run newsgroups, is filled with people who fill up space because the don’t know the answer but won’t shut up. > > Mostly they hold the illusion that they know better than any person stupid enough to ask a question. > > Q: Any Question about anything? > A: That is a bad question. You should be doing something else instead. You know nothing about [Something that I still find difficult, so obviously you must understand it even less than I do]. > > Garrrchukkk. > > Sorry for the rant. I think that is definitely part of what goes on sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701/26 "2013-12-07T08:26:01Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > Life is not a search algorithm. Most of the time, partially right is right enough. We all know that and can giggle at those who don’t and who stamp their feet all mad about it. Your giggling aside, in my opinion “partially right” is _not_ right enough. When it comes to law, construction and most sciences, being partially right is not something most settle for. In things as simple as recipes, being partially right can be the difference between using baking powder or baking soda(“I knew it was baking _something_, so at least I was half right!”). ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701/27 "2013-12-07T08:37:05Z")
Whyn’t you have a read of _How To Solve It_ by Georg Polya and then come back and tell us how “partially right is totally wrong”? A partially right answer can be an important step forwards even if it isn’t a place to finish. **Little Nemo** posed an excellent hypothetical above and you snarl at him for it. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701/28 "2013-12-07T08:50:10Z")
It often happens on this message board, where someone asks when a particular phrase first appeared. Some will try to find the correct answer as to when it was first said, but others follow with when _they_ first heard it, even if their example takes place long after a previously given answer. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701/29 "2013-12-07T08:51:20Z")
Once my roommate and I lost a cat. We didn’t have a picture but we put up ads that said “Lost: Beautiful long-haired black and white female cat” along with our phone number. So a guy calls and says he thinks he has our cat. We go over to retrieve her–and it’s a shorthaired tricolor MALE. We took him anyway because he was cute and we figured the guy who found him was never going to get it right and knew fuckall about cats. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701/30 "2013-12-07T08:51:22Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > Whyn’t you have a read of _How To Solve It_ by Georg Polya and then come back and tell us how “partially right is totally wrong”? A partially right answer can be an important step forwards even if it isn’t a place to finish. **Little Nemo** posed an excellent hypothetical above and you snarl at him for it. :rolleyes: **Little Nemo** couldn’t even get my basic premise right. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701/31 "2013-12-07T08:55:30Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > Once my roommate and I lost a cat. We didn’t have a picture but we put up ads that said “Lost: Beautiful long-haired black and white female cat” along with our phone number. > > So a guy calls and says he thinks he has our cat. We go over to retrieve her–and it’s a shorthaired tricolor MALE. > > We took him anyway because he was cute and we figured the guy who found him was never going to get it right and knew fuckall about cats. [Tongue In Cheek]But it was a cat, right? Maybe you misremembered the color, hair length and sex of your cat, so don’t be criticizing someone that might have given you the cat you were _actually_ looking for.[/TIC] ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701/32 "2013-12-07T08:56:34Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > **Little Nemo** couldn’t even get my basic premise right. Yes - your basic premise is that everything you say is right and people should respect the fact. The alternative he proposed is that it’s possible you could make some error and that giving you an answer which fit most of the supplied facts would actually make more progress than giving you no answer at all. How stupid of him. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701/33 "2013-12-07T09:06:20Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > Yes - your basic premise is that everything you say is right and people should respect the fact. The alternative he proposed is that it’s possible you could make some error and that giving you an answer which fit most of the supplied facts would actually make more progress than giving you no answer at all. How stupid of him. No, that isn’t my basic premise, but thanks for playing. ---
**Author:** ![Carmady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f04885/32.png) [@Carmady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carmady)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701/34 "2013-12-07T09:20:40Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > That may be, but why not try to give an answer that fits all of the qualifications _first_? I was in a café one time doing a crossword, and I mentioned out loud that I needed a seven letter word for an alcoholic drink, with the first letter being “m” and the fourth being “t”, and he thinks a bit, smiles and writes down his answer on a napkin: “Manhatten”. When I said that it couldn’t possibly be correct, he got upset, saying “Why the hell not? It’s a drink that has an “m” and a “t” in it, just like you said!” I had that same crossword puzzle. The answer _was_ “Manhattan”. The puzzle had a trick where “man” would sometimes take up a space by itself. “man” “h” “a” “t” “t” “a” “n” 7 spaces, starts with an m, 4th space is a t. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701/35 "2013-12-07T09:25:42Z")
> [@Carmady](#): > > I had that same crossword puzzle. The answer _was_ “Manhattan”. > > The puzzle had a trick where “man” would sometimes take up a space by itself. > > “man” “h” “a” “t” “t” “a” “n” > > 7 spaces, starts with an m, 4th space is a t. 😛 Sorry, his answer is still wrong, even if that was allowed-he actually spelled it “manhatt_e_n”. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701/36 "2013-12-07T09:48:08Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > No, that isn’t my basic premise, but thanks for playing. And so goes a typical **Czarcasm** thread. Couldn’t you just ask a mod to add [Post if you agree] in the thread title? ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701/37 "2013-12-07T09:50:09Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > [Tongue In Cheek]But it was a cat, right? Maybe you misremembered the color, hair length and sex of your cat, so don’t be criticizing someone that might have given you the cat you were _actually_ looking for.[/TIC] He actually was way nicer than the cat we had lost. (Which we never located:() ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701/38 "2013-12-07T11:32:44Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > It’s a martini, in case you’re still working on that crossword. No, it’s a Margarita. Seven letters and the fourth is a “t”, like he says. For certain values of “7” and certain values of “fourth”, that is. Or maybe for certain values of “t”. You need to be intelligemt to do crosswords. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701/39 "2013-12-07T13:35:01Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > When it comes to [. . .] most sciences, being partially right is not something most settle for. Many prospective chemists enter grad school with this fantasy. They either learn better or they leave with a consolatory MS because they couldn’t hack it. Obviously some things are more or less fudgeable than others. Recipes are the perfect example of the exact opposite of your point. Yes, there are small things you can do to totally destroy a meal, but my expanding waistline is testament to how carefree one can be in the kitchen. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701/40 "2013-12-07T13:51:45Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > No, it’s a Margarita. Seven letters and the fourth is a “t”, like he says. > > For certain values of “7” and certain values of “fourth”, that is. Or maybe for certain values of “t”. You need to be intelligemt to do crosswords. I’m just coming in to (a) ignore that the answer was given, and (b) guess Mai Tais. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/partially-right-is-totally-wrong/675701.md?page=3)