Stupid Questions August 2015

Richard Korzekwa

This thread is for asking any questions that might seem obvious, tangential, silly or what-have-you. Don't be shy, everyone has holes in their knowledge, though the fewer and the smaller we can make them, the better.

Please be respectful of other people's admitting ignorance and don't mock them for it, as they're doing a noble thing.

To any future monthly posters of SQ threads, please remember to add the "stupid_questions" tag.

Please be respectful of other people's admitting ignorance and don't mock them for it, as they're doing a noble thing.

To any future monthly posters of SQ threads, please remember to add the "stupid_questions" tag.

What do you mean by "hard"? Difficult? Frustrating? Boring?

For a variety of reasons, I'm hesitant to share a specific example, but here is an exchange from the conversation I had recently:

Me: To me, the fashion industry is this black box that has people in it, and clothing comes out of it

Her (surprised, confused): It's not like that at all!

Me: What I mean is that I don't know anything about how it works, except that it involves people who design clothing, and then somebody buys it

Her (still confused): Yeah...

So I guess it's mainly frustrating or boring?

Me: To me, the fashion industry is this black box that has people in it, and clothing comes out of it

That might be understood as you expressing that you consider the fashion industry low status with a challenge for her to prove otherwise.

<at this point I decided trying to get her to tell me about it wasn't going anywhere, so I moved on to attempt at embarrassing my friend who was standing nearby, who then got lots of unwanted attention from her>

The straightforward way to get her to tell you something about the fashion industry would be to ask... (read more)

3Adam Zerner11y

Hahahaha, that's really funny! "It's not like that at all" :) My understanding is that the black box analogy is understood by some normal people, but not most. How could you have made for a more enjoyable interaction? Some thoughts that come to my mind: * (Meta level: What's my goal? Enjoyable conversation? Where do our interests overlap? I like to have interesting conversations. She's probably not very smart, so her ability to have interesting conversations is probably limited to her domain. What interesting conversations could we have within her domain? What thoughts do I have about her domain? What are the likely ways she'd respond to those thoughts? Alternatives: skipping shallow talk and talking about emotional things is probably enjoyable. For some reason humans enjoy sharing their feelings. What's the line between interesting and creepy? Are you happy? What are your ambitions? What would you do if you didn't have to work?) * Our society's fashion seems really dark. Dark blues, blacks, browns, greys etc. I think it'd be cool if there were more color. I like to wear colorful clothing, but don't really. Mostly because it's more difficult to pair things up and I'm lazy. Which would lead to her probably giving advice, and maybe talking about color in a historical sense. Was it more colorful in the past? Will it be in the future? On that note, are there any trends in color? What about across cultures? Do any consistencies across culture say anything about design/color and human nature? * Maybe once she's been loosened up, I'd comment on how I love wearing pajama pants. Plus some stories of that. And my thoughts on how society seems to have chosen pretty uncomfortable clothes as its norms. There's probably nothing inherent about suits and khakis and jeans that look good. If we all agreed that something more comfortable was the new norm, we'd probably be better off. (Pet peeve: the "shoulder pads" on suits are just ridiculous. You can't even lift up your arms!)

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Stupid Questions August 2015

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Stupid Questions August 2015

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