Doesn’t matter. Physicians still want the cause of death. And arterial stenosis (which has a genetic component) is a risk factor for cerebral hemmorhage. The point remains that there should be a “don’t know” box for all this shit.
Did you include that in the form?
You can die from undescended testicles?!
I don’t think education makes you stupid. I think education is geared towards teaching people facts, information and procedures (ie formulas, methodologies etc). I think a lot of these facts are pretty useful, and I condone the pursuit of them. However, having facts and information doesn’t suddenly cure stupidity. I think stupidity is related to problem solving and learning. Education can solve ignorance though, and ignorance can be just as big a problem as stupidity is. I think stupidity can be exacerbated by education though. In this case education is a tool, but any tool can be misused by someone misguided.
I believe the correct spelling is edjumacation.
Worst Robin Williams film ever.
I’m still lost on what the hell a badly-designed form has to do with education, college-level or otherwise.
Yeah I’m confused on the education angle too.
As I noted about 10 months ago, I believe the link between the OP and education depends on the presence of damned kids upon pristine lawns.
Thirded. I design these kind of forms (though I didn’t do the one you were just working on), and the work environment is just insane. We are told what to do at the last minute, given insane deadlines (It has to be done by tomorrow?) and then our work is nitpicked by busybodies who delight in finding some fault with our work to justify their inflated salaries.
Yes, we know the form doesn’t make sense. The reason it doesn’t make sense is that Big Boss #1 told me it had to include X, Y, Z, and be done by Friday morning.
Back when I turned 65, I filled out a lengthy form - possibly the same one the OP filled out. After answering every question without problem, I was on the last page. They wanted me to type my full name, including middle initial. Since I don’t have a middle name (or initial), I left that blank. It wouldn’t accept a name without a middle initial. So I just typed any letter there . . . and it wouldn’t accept it because it didn’t match a name in their records . . . the name without a middle initial.
Uh how can you even remember 5% of the incredibly detailed info asked for?
You can remember when you got a polio vaccine?! In 1959?!?! It asks for this level of detail, who except rare memory savants could recall this?
If you asked me I could not even provide specific immunizations, aside from whatever was required for public school for someone born in the early 80s. Other than that SHRUG.
^ Ugh! I hate that sort of thing. I don’t have a middle name or initial, either. I have had people tell me it’s a legal requirement to have a middle name in the US. Nope, it isn’t.
Having hyphenated name also plays merry hell with forms, but when I got married in the 1980’s it wasn’t the problem it is now but I guess I was responsible for seeing the future.
Seriously, can’t we get it through bureaucratic heads that not everyone is named John Q. Public?
Actually, the issue is getting better, but my bank recently had to reprint my check order because someone on their end didn’t understand hyphenated names and mangled mine. It’s been a problem with that bank since ownership changed back in the early 00’s - when the ownership changed someone changed the name on my account without permission, apparently under the assumption that yes, you have to have a middle name and I’m too stupid to know my own label. WTF? They wanted to charge me to correct the problem but I raised enough hell, and called up the supervisor chain far enough, that they had to change it back without charge to me.
Happily, though, the state government, public aid, the Federal government, and my current employer all manage to cope with those of us with “strange” name configurations without a ruffled feather.
But, yes, I hate those modern medical forms with drop-down boxes and limited choices. “List all vaccinations you had as a child”…mmm, OK, where’s the one for “smallpox”? “List date of on-set for allergies” - oh, damn, I was an infant, I don’t know. “Can you ask your mother?” Not really, she’s been dead these last few years.
I can only imagine the adopted have worse problems when it comes to listing medical family history. “I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know…”
Who said anything about free form? Just don’t ask for specificity you don’t need. If you really are only concerned with the year, ask for the year, save if it’s been so close that the month is relevant. (We’re digital now. Forums are not static) At the very least, specifically mention that approximations are okay if they are.
This is an issue with debit cards too, my wife has one that has her name hyphenated but doesn’t have enough room for the full name so it just cuts off the end.
A stupid as bricks clerk actually hassled her over it, your ID says you’re Really Dumb-Example and your card says REALLY DUMB-EXA so this isn’t you.
:smack:
I have no middle name, and I can’t remember a time it has ever been a problem. Not on tax forms, social security cards, or even draft cards.
Yes, the government forms are fine… but I’ve worked at companies where the record keepers go into a tizzy, HR just can’t get my name right, and so on.
Region of the country might also have an effect - I’m currently living in a conservative area. On the other hand, some of the worst problems occurred while living in Chicago so… nevermind.
And if you can get yourself locked out of a website by breathing on your keyboard, it shouldn’t take a phone call and an act of Congress to get yourself reinstated.
I had a hell of a time at my last place. According to the USPS, our address (house) did not exist but the address for the mobile home (unit B) in the back field did. I had a lot of forms claiming my address did not exist.
You haiku, too. Almost:
Youth will end under
the grass someday too. Grass gets
the last laugh. Always.
Here’s an interesting article about just how difficult it can be to write programs to accommodate variant name formats: Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names.
Eye-opening, especially #40.