What the hell? Another "quote of the day" type thread? I thought you agreed to keep this shit in one thread.

No, Draug. He is asking a particular question. Did you even read the OP?

"Winter is coming"

Why is that hard to live by, abge?

Because it requires you to sacrifice for future hardships of which there are currently no signs.

Abge, great tie-in to the recent intelligence threads! Your last comment is the precise definition of emotional intelligence, which I am lacking.

Here's another one: "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." *ahem*

I got one...
" 'Til Death do us part..."

"Never ascribe to your opponent motives meaner than your own."

"If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."

This is the kinda stupid crap that people who can't contribute much say to each other. It's the kinda crap you tell kids when they are five or six so that they don't say mean stuff to each other all day long, not for intelligent adults. Why do we have to say nice things to each other if there isn't anything nice to say or if what we have to talk about isn't particularly nice but must be discussed? Living this kind of "reality" puts you in a place where the only thing you say to each other is inane and utterly meaningless the majority of the time.

If you want a better axiom to live by, it would be "If you don't have anything to say that would contribute or enhance the discussion (or at the very least, correct), then don't say anything at all."

Furthermore, "Your last comment is the precise definition of emotional intelligence, which I am lacking" speaks volume of what else is lacking. Abge's comment has nothing at all to do with emotional intelligence but rather predictive logic. If one logically thinks about the uncertainty or hardship the future may bring, then one would do one's best now to clearly prepare for it. It is certainly just a logical conclusion to life's challenges. Emotional intelligence has to do with, ahem, emotions. One such definition is the ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups. None of which has to do with thinking about the reality of the future and the present. Emotional intelligence would be related to whether or not one is actually able to sacrifice one's present wants and needs so that one is more likely to be prepared for the future, but the thinking about doing so is logic.

"If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."

I think there is a truth in what Mujus says, zultar, if one defines things rightly. Most people, when they quote that as adults, obviously realize that it should be interpreted in a sufficiently adult-context way.

The point is that one should *not* say things just because they make interesting conversation, if they are hurtful to other people without having the benefit of helping them improve. If they are honest criticism that will help them be better people, then they *are* in fact, "nice" (by any relevant definition).

I disagree, semck.
That presupposes too much intelligence on the part of the adult population. I have yet to see that kind of generosity to be returned in any kind of meaningful way. If you talk to many adults of a wide range, you would see that most of them think of nice as just sugary nice, and not in a deep meaningful kinda nice.

It's true, some people do make that mistake. They are very wrong, as you suggest.

Zultar, you ignorant dumkopf. Go look up Gardner's definition of "emotional intelligence" before you go off on a rant. Shades of SNL's Gilda Radner. lol

EXCUSE me, it's Daniel Coleman. I mixed up the two authors of the "____ Intelligence" books in my mind. Apologies. But my point stands, Zultar.

At least according to wikipedia, Mujus, Gardner did not define "Emotional intelligence," or indeed even use the term in his inintial book. In his book, "Multiple intelligences," he does use the term, though Google books doesn't enable me to see how. Why don't you share his definition with us since we may not all have access to the book? (Ignorant dumkopfs or not.)

Also, Zultar, I think you missed another point too. The point of this thread is things that we have problems living with ourselves, and so when I posted "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all," it was by virtue of the context aimed primarily at myself, so your statement "This is the kinda stupid crap that people who can't contribute much say to each other" is not only rude and emotional, but it also misses the point completely.

If you had taken issue with the way I said "*ahem*", I couldn't have argued, because I was at least intimating that there is something else there, and of course it was aimed at Draugnar. *ahem*

Semck, you may be too young for the allusion to Saturday Night Live's Gilda Radner to ring a bell. She would always take off on a rant based on a misunderstanding, following which she would famously say "Never mind." Also on SNL was a segment that showed an anchorman and woman. The woman would give an opinion, and the man would start his section by saying, "Jane, you ignorant slut." I was trying to be clever but probably violated the cardinal rule of communication in that I did not consider my audience. And I also got the name wrong--see the following post where I corrected the author of Emotional Intelligence.

The primary thrust of Coleman's book is shown by his reference to a study in which children were given the choice of one marshmallow now or two marshmallows later. They were then tracked for years, and the ones who waited for the two marshmallows by controlling their own impulses for instant gratification had more success in life by all sorts of measures including income and education levels.
Here's Wiki's page on emotional intelligence with a wide range of definitions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_intelligence

In general, Mujus, I think it's probably a bad idea to start off a post by saying "You ignorant dumkopf" and hope that the reader (of whatever age) will tie it to a 1970s comedy sketch that did not contain the words, "You ignorant dumkopf."

On another note, it is not clear to me that there was any reason zultar would have or should have assumed that you were referring to Gallman's model of emotional intelligence, specifically.

*Goleman, not Gallman, sorry.

And excuse my surliness tonight. I had to take a break from grading annotated bibliographies after finding several instances of direct copying, faked summaries, personal web pages listed as academic sources, and tricky half-false references.

Thus the impetus for starting this thread. And now I have provided an example of its timeliness--a bad example, but evidence nonetheless.

Zultar, apologies for my rudeness. I was already primed to be rude from RL and acted "in the flesh."

"Plagiarism will result in failure of the course" Now *that's* a saying that's hard to live by.

Abge, true. But in a community college (not my grad classes however), the standards are indeed somewhat more flexible. And we need to be able to prove that we did in fact teach them what plagiarism is and how to avoid it before we can do more than drop the grade for that particular paper.

I think in the Ivy League and the military academies, you're expelled for one instance of plagiarism or cheating. Can anyone verify that? In most universities, there are some options. At our CC, faculty options range from a zero grade on that assignment to being dropped from the course with an 'F' to reporting the student to Student Affairs. In lo these many years I've only reported two students after the made it very clear that stern talks and zero grades would not stop them from gross plagiarism, and the only thing that would get through was to have to speak with a college officer before they could register for classes again.

Yes, I can easily imagine that type of BS to be the case. Thankfully, I teach IT courses, so there's really no opportunity to cheat.

Another timely "words to live by" post, this one from today's Bible reading (Galatians 5): 13 For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. 14 For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[c] 15 But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.