Brr, I am still having the shivers from that 7 Habits book. In it, the author included many condescending little platitudes, but the worst one was the chapter on how to talk to people.
Wrong way:
Son: Gee Dad, school is for the birds ! [I am not making this up] Father: Why would you say that ? Education is important, for the following reasons...
Right way:
Son: Gee Dad, school is for the birds ! Father: Why do you say that school is for the birds ? Son: Well, I feel as though no one understands me. Father: It appears that you feel that no one understands you. Why do you feel that way ? ...
It was downright frightening. Apparently, the right way to talk to people is to just rearrange their sentences a la Eliza (M-x doctor), paying no attention to any semantic content. In fact, I think I fed that conversation (the son's side) to Eliza, and got similar results.
My only hope for the future is that not many people took that book seriously. Yes, I would like the Turing Test to be successfull one day, but turning us all into mindless chatterbots is not it.
Marge: That video really opened my eyes. I can see that I'm just a
passive-aggressive co-culprit. By nagging you when you do
foolish things, I just enable your life script. Homer: And that sends me into a shame spiral.
Son:Gee Dad, schools is for the birds! Father:Yeah, it sure can feel like that sometimes. What would you like to get out of school? Son:I wish there was practical stuff, like a shop class on cars. Father:Hmmm. How about we get a good sporty car that's beaten up and then you could fix it up? You could read up the manuals and I could help you with some of the concepts and when an extra pair of hands are needed. If we get stuck we could pay a mechanic to teach us a couple of tricks. If you do
"Mr. Watson, come here, I want you." -- Alexander Graham Bell
Matrix Schmatrix (Score:2)
Wrong way:
Right way: It was downright frightening. Apparently, the right way to talk to people is to just rearrange their sentences a la Eliza (M-x doctor), paying no attention to any semantic content. In fact, I think I fed that conversation (the son's side) to Eliza, and got similar results.My only hope for the future is that not many people took that book seriously. Yes, I would like the Turing Test to be successfull one day, but turning us all into mindless chatterbots is not it.
Re:Matrix Schmatrix (Score:1)
passive-aggressive co-culprit. By nagging you when you do
foolish things, I just enable your life script.
Homer: And that sends me into a shame spiral.
Re:Matrix Schmatrix (Score:1)