I never thought that I was stupid until I started posting here. Now I feel like everything I say sounds dumb. I’m starting to wonder if I am an idiot in real life, too.
Anyone else feel like a moron?
Constantly.
…and I guess more thick skinned. There’s some stinging needles here.
Occasionally. It’s humbling, ain’t it? After awhile you get to know who the real experts are in some topics that you also have a bit of knowledge in. You know they will likely be along to answer fully, and you learn to only contribute what you are relatively sure you are right about, particularly in GQ. I got my ass handed to me by QED (RIP) early on about how electricity works, and I was an electrican by trade for many years :rolleyes:. Embarrassing to find out that my grasp of theory wasn’t what I thought it was. Now I just stick to troubleshooting questions, which was always my strong suit. I can usually hold my own in cooking threads, talk about living overseas, travel threads, some foreign language skills, and some other things.
There are very smart people here, and some morons, and the rest of us are scattered in between somewhere (I may be taking some liberty by not classifying myself as a moron). I would suggest just contributing what you can and learn from others when you can’t. As long as you don’t say anything completely inane, folks will treat you okay. If you insist on donning a tinfoil hat or espousing easily disproved dogma, you’ll get your ass handed to you pretty damned quick.
Sometimes it makes me feel stupid, alienated, socially inept, crazy, and just not very nice.
Sometimes, though, it makes me feel the complete opposite of all of those things.
Just like life.
Yes, this board is intimidating. For the first seven-eight years I was a member I kept going through a cycle of reading–posting a little–posting a lot–getting my ass handed to me–leaving. I must have learned how to avoid ass-handings because I’ve been reading regularly and posting a little for two or three years now without being called names.
Yah–I’m not sure I have that type of energy or longevity…or resilience. I guess I’m thinking life’s pretty short to try to win the acceptance of world wide strangers who probably will never like me anyway.
We’re all born ignorant. Smart people are the ones who spend their lives learning things. And this is a good place to learn. I find that talking to smart people makes me smarter. On this board, I’m exposed to a wide variety of smart people who talk about a wide variety of topics.
Well, I don’t post a whole lot and I’m not exactly a “known” poster around here. But I stick around because it’s worth it: it’s fun, there are a lot of clever people and I learn from them, and for the most part I’m fine with lurking.
I mean, I wouldn’t worry about trying to get people to like you on here. There are clever people, yes, and there are nice people. There are also idiots and raging fools.
But yeah, some folks make me feel stupid. Others make me feel like Einstein.
Well, I know that I know a lot about my profession and my top non-professional interest and I know I am good at what I do. But for some reason, being here makes me feel like I couldn’t even articulate myself clearly on those topics. It seems that whatever I post becomes attack-bait. No, I’m not seeking sympathy–just making an observation.
How about not posting about your ballywick for a while?
Most Dopers don’t know that I’m a scientist because I rarely go into GQ to advertise myself as one. If I see someone posting something that is overtly wrong, I will correct them. But rarely do I rush to post an answer to a question in GQ unless I am absolutely certain that I know the answer. Since I rarely have that certainty–even about stuff I am supposed to know–I don’t post about stuff in “my” area that often. I guess it’s because if someone is going to argue about something that is in my area of expertise and that I talk about all the time in real life, that’s when I’m more likely to get hot and bothered and start taking things personally. But if it’s something I don’t really care about in the first place, then I can argue for days and not break a sweat. I know it doesn’t make sense, but that’s how it is for me.
It helps not to take anything you post all that seriously. And that goes for what you read from others. Some posters post expert opinions and are never called out for being wrong, but that doesn’t mean they are never wrong. It just means they have a posting style that makes them believable and/or they’ve built up enough of a reputation that people assume they are correct. There are posters here that I have identified as “knowing their shit”, but I don’t think there are any uber geniuses here. Everyone makes mistakes and has holes in their knowledge. No one is perfect.
Hmmm. I didn’t think that I was revealing myself? A quick glance of posts have ranged from music, my bike, my neighbor, my popcorn ceiling, my favorite junk foods…I dont believe I have revealed what I do?
I didn’t say you did. I was just giving some general advice.
I’m so confused. This place is rougher than my heels after a long winter.
Well said. This place is also like having older siblings. You learn to cope or parish. You also learn that measuring what you say, so that you convey exactly what you mean has a value.
You also learn that measuring what you say, so that you convey exactly what you mean has a value.
Now THAT is enough of a reason for me to stay. As I’m sure Little Nemo would agree, that is not my forte, as evidenced by my entrance here a mere week ago.
When they say “Publish or Parish” does that mean if you don’t publish, you need to become a priest?
ETA: Oh, yeah - you can’t even get away with typos around this place!
There is some effort involved. That’s life - you can’t accomplish anything without putting some effort into it.
But don’t sweat it too much. This is just an online message board. You can’t really screw this up too badly. The basic rules are try to listen at least as much as you speak, don’t front unless you’re really sure you can pull it off, and don’t be a jerk.
Yes, it does make me feel stupid, but at least I learn from it.
IRL, a lot of people here are the smartest in any given room. (Or at least think they are.) This MB is a very large room.