I appologise for not realising that you had got the term right. Time to rub friend’;s nose ionto it next time you see him and lecturer together. After all this is an Achedemic situation and dissagreement properly backed up by citations is to be valued highly.
(though do be very sure you did get the deffinition correct, before trying this)
It doesn’t matter if he was using the term ‘first mover advantage’ correctly or not. A friend would have pointed out the error privately; doing it in the middle of a public presentation was not the act of a friend. Those of you who believe otherwise are using the term ‘friend’ incorrectly.
I gather you’ve never set foot inside an academic classroom or conference? That’s the only explanation i can think of for your naivete on this matter.
It seems apparent from the OP’s description of the class and of the presentation that there was time allowed for the class to offer questions and comments on each presentation. If that’s true, then pointing out an error or calling a conclusion into question is perfectly appropriate, friend or not.
I gather you’ve never actually had a friend?
Friends do not go out of their way to get their friends lower grades on assignments so that they can look smart in front of the teacher. They can certainly disagree during the discussion of a concept, but when grades are being decided, a friend is someone who supports you, not someone who knocks you down.
What I’m wondering is, what sort of teacher alters a student’s grade based on what another student in the same class says? “Well, that other sophmore said you were wrong, so I guess you were wrong. Five points off!”
I have been told that I’m a pretty good friend, and I wouldn’t hesitate to point out that one of my friends was incorrect in class. However, I also wouldn’t expect the professor to alter my friends grade based on my say so. If the OP’s friend didn’t expect that his correction would lower his grade, it seems unfair to take him to task over it.
This the OP in post number 17.
Why are there 25 some odd posts repeating the pile on this guy got in the first 15 replys?
mhendo, there is a difference between arguing, while being on the same team with the goal to understand and elucidate, and one person cutting another one down in public. This was not a disagreement leading to analytical discussion but an attempted CORRECTION. Even when you think you are right on a matter of fact, there are polite and appropriate ways to voice that, and this doesn’t seem to be it.
Good point!
It’s not usually enough to ask in a thread for a mod to close it. I’ll hit the Report button. 
To be quite honest, i didn’t see that post. Kudos to the OP for acknowledging that he may have overreacted. That fact doesn’t change the more general arguments being made in this thread, however.
Exactly.
As i said earlier, presumably the professor knows, or should know, what the term in question means, and whether or not the OP’s friend got it right. And even if the OP’s friend did get it right, that doesn’t mean that the OP’s presentation was poor, or should be graded down based on a single mistake.
Why not?
Leave aside for the moment that the questioner, according to the OP, was factually incorrect. We’re talking about the principle of when one does and does not attempt to correct an error.
Why is it not appropriate to do so at the conclusion of a presentation, during the time specifically allocated for questions and comments? And why can such a correction not be simply part of “being on the same team with the goal to understand and elucidate”? After all, if the attempted correction is, in fact, correct, then everyone in the class has been educated, have they not? And if the attempted correction is incorrect, it raises the opportunity to discuss the issue and make sure that everyone understands it.
Exactly.
Bullshit. Read his first post. It wasn’t intellectual criticism, he was using the OP to try to make himself look better. I think you’ve been watching too many re-runs of The Paper Chase.
Like these?
“Is it too late for you to switch to drama?”
“This is a university? It sounds like you are about 11 years old.”
I agree that that might be an appropriate time to bring up such a question. Maybe by saying something like: “I wanted to ask for some clairification. Can you tell me your sources for the definition of whatever? I have been taught in my other class that whatever means whatever, and I was wondering about the discrepancy.”
The way he phrased his question, giving a ‘clarification’ rather than asking for a dialogue about the issue, indicated to me that he was not looking for an answer, but wanted to show the class and the teacher that he knew more than the presenter. I’m lucky that my collegues are all very supportive, but one woman here came from a school where cutting each other down was normal. It was one of the reasons she left.
And, let’s not kid ourselves. I expect a different level of criticism at a professional conference, and heck, even a graduate seminar. This is an undergraduate class, and harmony and politeness are more important than ruthlessly seeking the truth about this concept which is apparently pretty common and easily defined (although what do I know from economics?)
And we know this is why he corrected the OP because…?
Because why else would he say it the way he did? In essence, he said “you were wrong, I know more than you.”
Fuck off you mouthbreathing moron.
The only evidence that he was doing it merely to make himself look better comes from the OP’s fevered imagination, and the assumptions of idiots like you who think that correcting someone means you’re not their friend. The guy thought that the OP’s definition was wrong, and he said so.
As it turns out, the OP was right and the guy was wrong, but in my opinion the whole conclusion that the guy had some nefarious motive seems to be based on the erroneous assumption that anyone who corrects a friend in class must be a backstabber.
Hey moron, i was referring to the discussion between me and grown-ups like Cheesesteak and Helen’s Eidolon. Why don’t you go back to eating your happy meal and watching Nickelodeon.
What about the way he said it indicated that he’s showing off how smart he is? He pointed out an error he thought was germane to the presentation. The OP might have picked up on tone or body language not available to us that indicated some sort of superior attitude or attempt to show off, but there’s nothing in the plain text of what he wrote that warrants your assumption.
Wow, that was … classy and a little over the top. I always read your posts with great interest because they’re generally well written and thoughtful. Since I usually agree with you 90% of the time I’m just going to step away from this train wreck before it gets worse. I do think people are being a little hard on this guy.
What else is there to go on unless someone has a video of the event.
Maybe I’m doing a little projecting here but from the OP’s description of what happened it appears ‘to me’ that the guy was just showing off. I’ve been in classes where a friend was giving a presentation, and we’d even try to help out if the presentation was short or if they were having a little trouble, you’d lob a softball question at them. Or not say anything if it wasn’t going to help.
I’ve been in upper level classes where you do challenge the person making the presentation. Sometimes doing so is even a part of your grade. It really doesn’t feel like this is the case in the situation the OP described. I just felt bad for him because he apparently never experienced someting like this before.
I guess it’s just a difference of opinion. To me, what he OP said he said was pretty rude and self-aggrandizing.
I think you are being unreasonable in assuming the OP did not read the situation correctly. It could be the ‘friend’ had just raised a salient point and the OP went off his rocker about this. But unless you know the OP has a history of this sort of thing I think you should consider his point of view as reliable.
I think all adults will have been in both situations;
ones where a colleague points out an error in your plans, and as an adult you react positively too this and take those suggestions into consideration, usually somewhat thankful of the information, even if it momentarily makes you look bad in front of your boss.
and ones where an obnoxious colleague raises unimportant quibbles, and argues points that he is completely ignorant about, in order to try and look good in front of the boss. As adults we hope the boss is wise enough to see that person for what they are, and if the boss is not, we get annoyed at both the idiot and the boss.
I feel it unreasonable to expect the OP’s situation was analogous to the first rather than the second possibility. Especially given the information that the ‘friend’ was someone who could not socialize well, and frankly sounds as if he suffers from a great lack of social skill. Such people are likely to not realize that trying to look good in front of the boss at other colleagues expense is not conductive to a good working relationship.
In other words, if you were giving a presentation in front of your boss, or as part of a scored academic test, then you would not be happy if someone spends time trying to make you look small for their own aggrandizement. A friend might point out “are you sure you are using the term correctly” but not try to say “I happen to have been studying blah-blah-blah and happen to know you are using the term incorrectly. If you had only read blah-blah-blah then you wouldn’t make such an elementary mistake” to make themselves seem skilled.
And yes, I have spent plenty of time in Academia thank you very much, working for a company is far more cut throat, and keeping good relationship with your colleagues is far more important than pointing out minor problems in a colleague’s plans in front of others.
(Luckily for me neither academia nor business life requires me to spell too accurately)
I will agree with mhendo, excpet that well, he phrased it as “This is not a question, but a clarification…”
Yes, I agree with many here that I do need to grow a thicker skin. The kick is well, as in the first post, this comes from a friend whom we are working together. I guess different people has different ideas and expectations of friends and team-members and perhaps I have set my notch a bit tad too high.
I guess the differing discussion here is due to difference in culture. Singapore has more or less an Asian culture, and well making your friends look bad is not at all acceptable. I guess I have to keep in mind that when on SDMB that not all share the same norms.
As to over-reaction, that is an issue that I am dealing with - at least I didn’t explode into that friend’s face (ya, I just come home to fume and rant on an Internet message board). From what others tell me, it seems that friend engaged in this sort of snipe remarks all the time. But that still does not justify my explosion.
As to what I believe my friend is showing off? Well, as I said, he began with a “This is not a question, but a clarification…” He wanted to show the class that that we were wrong, and brushed aside our defence (which is correct) as “But you are wrong…the term means differently in economics”.
I guess I may have repeated this before, but if this comes from a mere stranger or classmate, I have no ball with that. But it is for a friend and a teammate which we are working together for for a while, yeah it’s like a real kick.
Many has expressed the concern that I may not be fit for business, where this happens all the time. I am afraid that they may be more or less right - however, I don’t get to pick this module - it’s a complusory elective. My major is computer science, where I can hide behind crucibles and code all the day long without interacting with people 
(Okay, I jest, I can’t really do that)
Hope this clear some of the air! Thanks everyone for their comments, even for the “You are a crybaby” vibes. I need to get over myself at times too.