MAC OS X tiger help for a Windows technician

[Christopher Bort]

On 06/17/07 00:56, brianw at sounds.wa.com (Brian Willoughby) wrote:

>The best way to fight Dan's arrogant and unhelpful responses is 
>if they disappear in the volume of helpful responses (and I 
>mean responses with answers, not just chiming in about how bad 
>Dan is).

Yet I often find that Dan's responses are the most helpful in 
the long run. It's true that he doesn't usually just give 'the 
answer.' More often, through pointed comments and questions, he 
gives just enough information for an observant reader to find 
'the answer' for [him|her]self. Teach a man to fish, and all 
that. He does tend to be terse and abrasive, with the points of 
his comments and questions sharpened perhaps a little too much, 
and he never misses an opportunity to chastise people for not 
thinking things through and shearing off the wool. Those with 
thinner skins often interpret his tone as arrogant rudeness. If 
you can toughen your own exoskeleton and not take it personally 
(I can't think offhand of an instance where Dan has actually 
attacked anyone on a personal basis), you may see that the 
terseness quite often cuts right to the meat of the issue at 
hand. It seems that people get the most frustrated with Dan when 
his responses require them to do a little homework and, perhaps, 
some actual thinking of their own. Could he be as effective with 
a gentler tone? Perhaps, but then it wouldn't be Dhan (sic) and 
we'd have to send out a rescue crew to find out what had 
happened to him.

-- 
Christopher Bort
<topher at thehundredacre.net>
<http://www.thehundredacre.net/>