Posted: 12/30/2004 10:52:56 PM EDT
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I constantly deal with situations involving incompetent people making decisions. They aren't always incorrect decisions (as my granddad said, "even a blind hog gets an acorn now and again,") but they are very often immensely stupid. The model is like this: Bob discovers a bomb in the mailroom at the office. It has a digital clock on it, presumably counting down the time till detonation. The readout upon discovery is "90:00:00." A quick glance at a nearby clock confirms that the "90" is hours rather than minutes or seconds. Beads of sweat form on Bob's brow. Bob does not know jack shit about bombs, electricity, or any other subject which might be useful in this situation. Bob whips out his pocketknife, and after 3 minutes of careful deliberation cuts the blue wire, blowing himself, the building, and its 1100 occupants to matchsticks. Bob did not call the cops. Bob did not pull the fire alarm. Bob did not say to himself "I know nothing about this. Perhaps there are others more qualified than myself to choose the next step." The model applies to everything from genuine emergencies to trivial matters. People seem largely incapable of figuring out what decisions need to be made, who should make them, and what they should be. I am amazed that there is an adequate breeding population of humans left on the planet. That is all. |
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You also forget that if Bob had disarmed it then Bob would have been on TV and a "celberity" until the end of the week. This would have made Bob feel specail and been the highpoint of his life, it would outdo the sadness of paying bills, trying to buy and own stuff to make life "complete" and having his wife order him around. See if you try it yourself and suceed you can feel like your soo great and one other person might think that, until something shiny comes along. |
Perhaps, but he would be using a defensible decision-making model, and he'd probably have used some of the 90 hours to evacuate the building. |
But these stupid people work jobs too, some I have seen works high paying jobs. Other stupid ones live off goverment support. So less stupid people would mean other open jobs and less taxes because the stupid people who formally used them are gone. |
No no no no! I saw it in a movie once, you should cut the yellow wire, especially if you're 20,000 quazillion feet under water and the bomb is a nuke. I hope this helps. ETA the laughing devil doo-hickey..... 
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I live with it every day, from people who drive 10 miles per hour under the speed limit in the left lane of a four lane, to people next to me at the range, & at worst of all at work. It is amazing that a college educated 45 year old man can not turn on a computer that makes $40k a year. Or a woman who was hired as branch manager with zero experience in the business is allowed to stay with a company 6 years all the while our profit went from 35% cash flow to nothing. After they decide to close the branch office she manages, they actualy then offer her a commisioned sales position and now has stock in the company, and makes $60k a year. Absolutely amazing, as if it had been a male he would have been gone 4 years ago. I also have to deal with another woman who was given a promotion and moved to an office job that is pretty important but yet this person is so incompetent that someone else basically does her job for her, as they sit next to each other and their 2 computers are networked. All the while these people contiue to breed, and collect a paycheck. My favorite moron of all time was the einstein at the range who had just bought a brand new scope, mounted it on the bolt gun the night before and somehow managed to miss an 8 point buck this morning. When asked what range the gun was sighted for his response was "what do you mean sight it in? I never heard of that" |
Reminds me of something someone said here: I've become increasingly convinced that 10% of people are evil, 5% are good, and the other 85% are functional morons.
No no no, if it's a nuke, just chuck a grenade in it and run. You did bring grenades, right? Please tell me you brought at least one grenade to the secret undersea lair... |
A computer gets paid? 
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