Why are smarties like Cecil and I such lousy administrators.

The BBQ Pit
1

Got a slew of error messages tonight accessing the SDMB (MySQL, by the way) which against my better judgement made me think.

Why are smart people such lousy administrators, e.g.
Cecil Adams, PBUH, has the slowest, most error prone, unweildy message board ever concieved. (Not to mention that his home page must not have been tested on anything but IE.)
Jimmy Carter, an intellegent, compassionate Commander in Chief done in by an inept military under his command.
IBM produced the world’s best operating system, OS/2, while selling its computers preloaded with Windows©.

And the in the opposite corner:
George W. Bush’s staff has the media discussing drilling for new oil as a solution to a distribution problem.
My boss who impresses the home office with reports that neglect to mention sending two people on two hour trips to work across the street from each other.

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Well, it would run damn fast if Cecil was smart enough to, say, get a server capable of supporting the massive traffic that this site recieves and not have to pay for it. And if you think it looks bad with NS now, you should see what it looked like for the first couple days of the current software, before I fixed it (sorry, like to brag about that one). But it’s commercial software, so don’t blame Cecil.

Oh, please. First, as Commander in Chief, he is responsible for having “ept” people under him. Second, a far bigger problem for him was a poor economy, and nitwit economic policies that he made.

Intelligent people are not necessarily bad administrators. Administration is a skill, and just because someone is a reasonably skilled person does not mean he or she actually possesses that specific skill.

3

Exactly my point. Cecil, PBUH, is as [sarcasim]smart[/sarcasim] as I but his choice in software reflects his administrative in"ept"itude.

      • I ain’t about to bother with fancy dancy tags. * * *

>>Jimmy Carter, an intellegent, compassionate Commander in Chief

>>done in by an inept military under his command.

>Oh, please. First, as Commander in Chief, he is responsible

>for having “ept” people under him.

>Second, a far bigger problem for him was a poor economy,

>and nitwit economic policies that he made.

I was refering to his order to the military to rescue the hostages. The military in its in"ept"udeness crashed helicopter into helicopter. He was Commander in Chief of the military but he was, as an intellegent person unable to administrate the military under his command to even land and take off again without crashing.
The economy at the time is another example of smarts being outdone by administration. He knew there was plenty of oil but he could not administrate the distribution of that oil.

>Intelligent people are not necessarily bad administrators.

>Administration is a skill,

>and just because someone is a reasonably skilled person

>does not mean he or she actually possesses that specific skill.

Again I thank you for making my point. "Just because someone is a reasonably skilled person (Intelligent) does not mean he or she actually possesses that skill (administration.)

And,and you say “if Cecil was smart enough…”
You, you cad you.
May the Bird Of Paradise fly up your nose
and deposit worms of doubt.

NEXT!

4

mmmm…Smarties

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Um. Allow me to be the first one to point out that Cecil doesn’t run the message board. All Cecil Adams does is write the columns that are known collectively as “The Straight Dope”. This message board is run by the Chicago Reader, ably assisted by Ed Zotti and Tech God J. Davis. [sound of chanting]

AFAIK, Cecil has no actual input into the tech side of the MB, not what version of vB they use or what kind of server they use or what kind of rodent they get to run in the little wheel that powers it. And if you’re interested, you can do a Search and find out that complaints about the slowness of the board’s speed have been endemic for over a year now. Start with the About This Message Board forum, put in “Boards slow” with “Any date”.

Cecil is not “Commander in Chief”, or even an “administrator”. TubaDiva and Lynn Bodoni share the Commander in Chief battle chair. Little Ed’s the administrator. Cecil is the lonely genius locked into his study for hours and hours, writing furiously, while the rest of us wait patiently out in the hallway for his next opus.

Or is this going to be one of those “there’s no such person as Cecil Adams/Cecil Adams and Ed Zotti are really the same person” threads?

Ho hum.

6

I knew it.

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Since this IS the Pit, may I please just chime in…

“I before E except after C!”

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Except in Budweiser. :smiley:

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Smarties like Cecil and I? Pretty lofty self-evaluation, eh?

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As in “their” and “science?”

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OK, now you’ve hit upon a pet peavve of mine. Rather than research it again, I’ll just cut and paste from my post in this thread.

Basically, Carter approved a plan that did not take into account the possibility that things wouldn’t go according to plan. I think the failure to recognize the importance of Keeping It Simple, Stupid, is more than an administrative failure. Especially when the lives of people under you are on the line.

As for the software, you know of anything better? For $300 or less? Actually, vBulletin is as good as any message board software I’ve seen at handling a database of the size and activity as this one. Unfortunately, it would be impossible to get this message board to run fast on the current server with any software (though I’d like to see what Oracle could do, especially that new version with the $1 mil. guarantee of a threefold increase in speed, but that’s some serious money).

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Okay, so I neglected the rest of the verse:

“I before E except after C
Or when sounding as “A”
As in ‘neighbor’ and ‘weigh.’”

And, of course, as always when discussing English language rules, there are exceptions. (I don’t consider “science” to be one, though - two syllables involved.) However, the vast majority DO follow the rule. INCLUDING “unwieldy” and “conceived.” So it’s a good rule to remember.

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originally posted by Duck Duck Goose

Sorry Ms Goose.

Try Google, use “Bahamas Hotel”.

Go to the one named after a famous cocktail, and find the toll-free phone number. Dial it, and asked to be connected with “Guest Services”

When you get them on the line, say “Has Mr Cecil Adams had his massage yet, because I think he wanted to change the time. That’s Mr Cecil Adams of Chicago…”

Bingo!

Then cancel his Extra Powerful Polynesian Pampering Massage. I have been doing this for three days now, and I think I’m getting to him. I made a booking for a golf lesson yesterday. Golf!

Lonely genius? Ask Sa-shaye or Dawne (of Strict Schoolmistresses On Call 24 Hours) just how lonely he is.

Humph!

He’s living the high life, while we’re being fobbed off with the anal sacs of civets!

No justice. What a world. [sub]What a world… I’m melting…[/sub]

[sub]Red
boss[/sub]

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waterj2, thank you for the latest reply. Your response was most informative.

Bingo! Someone who is smart enough to discern and disagree with my OP.

Not quite sure I understand that.

Are you now agreeing with me that smarties have no admin skills?

Somehow I doubt that you agree.

Forget the specifics of my examples in the OP.

Do you or do you not agree that:

The smarter the person the less the administrative skill?

I think it’s hard wired like homosexualiy and pedophila

(No, not the same thing.)

I believe, and the subject of this thread is that

those wired for understanding complex non-human mechanics

such as cause and effect, such as empirical evidence,

are also unable to understand complex human administration

such as how humans react and how humans perform.

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Hey dumbfuck. Yeah, you. AcidKid. C’mere.

Firstly, you are not a “smartie,” m’kay? “Smarties” are coherent and have a firm grasp of accurate and appropriate use of language.

Secondly, everyone else figured out your babbling “OP.” But it’s faulty from the beginning, as the speed of this board has nothing to do with Cecil’s administrative capabilities, nor the administrative capabilities of anyone at all.

Thirdly, it Jimmy “I Saw A Bunny” Carter is a great man, and a wonderful humanitarian. And he made some completely inane and boneheaded decisions while in office. To claim that the failures of his administration are the result of “an inept military” shows an almost alarming lack of understanding.

And finally, while I agree that MS Windows has problems, anyone who claims that OS/2 is the “world’s best operating system” has clearly never used OS/2 for anything more complex than 2 + 2 = CAT.

Bzzzzz.

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Of course, in the phrase “Thirdly, it Jimmy,” the “it” should be stricken. Apologies, sloppy editing.

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Ah, yes. The assumption that anyone who does not treat an idiotic OP with reverence and respect simply doesn’t understand it. In my short time on the SDMB, I’ve already seen this at least a dozen times. In all cases so far, the user making such assertions invariably proves themselves to be a complete moron.

AcidKid, it’s much easier to assert intelligence than to actually possess intelligence. So, you have to do something to show us that you’re smart (like post a coherent OP), before we’ll actually believe you when you tell us how smart you are. Right now, you look like a dumbshit talking about how incredibly smart he is, which is pretty sad.

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Wow. And I thought they were just sugar and flavoring, hardened into little disks. I guess I just tended to wolf them down before they managed to demonstrate any real coherence.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by andros *

**

Sigh.

Granted I babble. As I said, just a James Joyce type of guy.

WAIT! WAIT!

I CAN PUT IT INTO TERMS EVEN YOU CAN UNDERSTAND:

Spock, “It is illogical for humans to act irrationaly.”

Voice of Rationality, “To expect irrational beings to react rationaly is irrational.”

I put this in the BBQ Pit because I knew I would get your type of response,

to the specifics instead of the general.

**** Linux, **** OS/2, **** MicroSoft, **** Mac, ****Java, ****C++, ****C, ****Assembly Language, ****Machine Language, ****Programming EPROMs with a bank of batteries, **** TTL, ****transistors, **** Vacumm Tubes,

One more time, (with no slight to Giraffe and waterj2 but I can only put so many people in their places at any one time :wink: )

The Question Is (and I paraphrase):

Why is Intelligence indirectly proportional to administrative skill?

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“If you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste more like prunes than rhubarb does.”–Groucho Marx

Erm, Acid, your question kinda abuts the ol’ frontier known as Vague.

Can you propose a correlation between your findings, backed with cites and/or specifics which support your proposition, that people might actually find some basis to take you seriously rather than correct your ‘smarty’****** spelling?

(You’ll find very few folks who accept your self-proclaimed aptitude for advanced thought while spelling ‘vacuum’ with two M’s and ‘rationally’ with one L.)

(Fewer still who respond positively to condescension and self-aggrandizing.)

In other words, in order for your audience to eschew the obvious (and possibly ‘overseen’) mistakes you present in your offerings, you’re going to need to present a case which stimulates thought based upon a cohesive argument in favor of your position.

In other words, your OP is based on assumption. It has been proven erroneous, in that Cecil has nothing to do with this board other than providing his commentary on various subjects.

Now, it is up to you to present your case.

Ok. Learning the new information, you said ‘forget the specifics of the OP.’

Ok, tossing the OP out.

You asked:

You stated your belief with:

You then reiterated your belief with specifics of what you believe i.e. “understanding of non-human principles versus understanding human nature.” (Nutshell version–please refer to 6th post preceding.)

But you don’t say why.

Until you present evidence, (and using Jimmy Carter’s fallability is subjective and something of a straw manas has been pointed out) something your listeners can ascertain via supporting arguments implementing substantive information in favor of your belief, you might as well state ‘Men who bake pastry can’t balance a checkbook because they’re hard wired that way.’

Why do you believe what you do?

****** *I spell ‘smarty’ in the singular with a ‘Y’ because I’ll never be able to think of a ‘Smartie’ as anything other than the candy I used to chop and snort in high school to freak people out.

Yeah, they burned a little, but they really cleared out the sinuses…*