dianavilliers (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dianavilliers) wrote2007-06-14 03:56 pm
dianavilliers) wrote2007-06-14 03:56 pm
(no subject)
Dear 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.
no subject
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
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.