It Isn't About You
After doing this and being on PF for many years, I tend to think that I have a feel for the educational level of people, especially the new ones, when they make their posts on physics topics. But often, it is hard to guess. To me, knowing what they know allows me to tailor my answer to that level, so that they at least have some chance of understanding what I write in return.
But today, after advising people to wait for the OP to come back and explain a bit more what he/she is asking (because the original question was rather vague), along came someone else right after my post and went ahead and spewed a bunch of stuff involving state vectors in QM and 6D phase space, etc.. etc. I mean, at WHAT point would someone actually considers the the person who ASKED the question? Rattling off such answers without regards to whether the other person could understand what one is saying is utterly selfish! It means that you're interested in showing off what you know, instead of trying to teach and make the other person understands the answer.
It isn't about YOU! It is about the person who asked the question, and people trying to answer as best as they can. To do that effectively, you need to know what that person knows and can understand! This is not hard to comprehend IF you stop thinking of just you, and start thinking about the OTHER person!
Harumph! My first blog post on PF and it is a rant!
Zz.
But today, after advising people to wait for the OP to come back and explain a bit more what he/she is asking (because the original question was rather vague), along came someone else right after my post and went ahead and spewed a bunch of stuff involving state vectors in QM and 6D phase space, etc.. etc. I mean, at WHAT point would someone actually considers the the person who ASKED the question? Rattling off such answers without regards to whether the other person could understand what one is saying is utterly selfish! It means that you're interested in showing off what you know, instead of trying to teach and make the other person understands the answer.
It isn't about YOU! It is about the person who asked the question, and people trying to answer as best as they can. To do that effectively, you need to know what that person knows and can understand! This is not hard to comprehend IF you stop thinking of just you, and start thinking about the OTHER person!
Harumph! My first blog post on PF and it is a rant!
Zz.
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Comments
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I read this after you linked it in a recent post you had today and I totally agree! A few months ago, someone new to the forum posted a question asking something simple like "Why is the speed of light constant?" or "Why is the speed of light the value it is". Before this guy had a chance to make a second post to clarify, someone had made a reply so convoluted that I had to tell the guy his reply was probably way way beyond the OP. His reply included terms such as 'Lorentz transformation' and 'Poincare group' and I was a graduate student before I knew what the heck the Poincare group was!Posted Jul15-11 at 04:31 PM by Pengwuino 
