(no subject)
Jun. 14th, 2007 03:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dianavilliersDear Coworker
I am functionally a mathematician.
What this means is that it doesn't matter how many times you ask the same question using a different set of words the answer remains the same. The answer is that the data is both insufficient and unreliable for the task in question, so No, I can't just give you a number. Sorry.
It doesn't make any difference how conciliatory your tone is or how many non-confrontational interpersonal techniques you use. You'd accept it without question if I told you the answer was 1.6. You'd be really impressed if I told you the answer was 1.572396001. So why is it you refuse to believe me when I say that the answer cannot be determined by this method with this data.
You don't seem to want to follow the reasoning - any attempt to explain just brings another useless restatement of the question with bonus conciliatory tone. I understand that you just want a number. I'd be more than happy to give you one (or even two, since an answer ain't an answer without an uncertainty) 'cos then you'd go away and stop being non-confrontational at me. Unfortunately I seem to have a sense of ethics and professional responsibility that I can't seem to shake.
Yours etc.
Looking for the Dice of Marking.
I am functionally a mathematician.
What this means is that it doesn't matter how many times you ask the same question using a different set of words the answer remains the same. The answer is that the data is both insufficient and unreliable for the task in question, so No, I can't just give you a number. Sorry.
It doesn't make any difference how conciliatory your tone is or how many non-confrontational interpersonal techniques you use. You'd accept it without question if I told you the answer was 1.6. You'd be really impressed if I told you the answer was 1.572396001. So why is it you refuse to believe me when I say that the answer cannot be determined by this method with this data.
You don't seem to want to follow the reasoning - any attempt to explain just brings another useless restatement of the question with bonus conciliatory tone. I understand that you just want a number. I'd be more than happy to give you one (or even two, since an answer ain't an answer without an uncertainty) 'cos then you'd go away and stop being non-confrontational at me. Unfortunately I seem to have a sense of ethics and professional responsibility that I can't seem to shake.
Yours etc.
Looking for the Dice of Marking.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-06-14 10:14 am (UTC)My students are sometimes like that. They think that if they just ask the right way (or ask enough times) that all of a sudden I'll decide that the deadline for starting a new test hasn't actually passed, and I'll say yes instead of no.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-14 12:05 pm (UTC)Me: H, please set up both of these projectors and make sure they work, so we can return them if they don't.
H: Sure! Anything special I need to know about them?
Me: I don't know; I haven't opened the boxes, much less read the manuals.
H: Will they work with the computers we have?
Me: I don't know; I haven't opened the boxes, much less read the manuals.
H: Do they need to be programmed or anything?
Me: I don't know; I haven't opened the boxes, much less read the manuals.
H: Are there any particular functions you want me to check?
Me: I don't know; I haven't opened the boxes, much less read the manuals.
And so on.