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Jun. 14th, 2007 03:56 pmDear 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.
