In my honest opinion, one of the most difficult things about being a nerd is that one time in a hundred -- assuming, of course, that you're either brilliant or know your stuff well enough to keep your mouth shut when you know you don't know your stuff -- when you're actually wrong.
To be honest, I'm possibly not the best person to be talking about this, because I am a horrible perfectionist with a bit of an obsession for being organised -- and with that, comes the need to forever be prepared. I'm always careful not to stick my nose into an argument I don't feel sure about. You hardly ever see me discussing things that I don't feel I'm "entitled' to discuss, because I don't feel like I've got enough knowledge about a certain subject.
Still, I firmly believe that no-one likes being wrong. It's like the jarring note when someone scrapes their nails on a blackboard, or a fork against a plate. For some people, it might be weaker and they might be able to shrug it off, but for most nerds, for whom knowing things would (I imagine) be a matter of pride, I'd think that the jar would be stronger than that. Sure, maybe there are some who delight on being corrected because they can now use the situation as a learning opportunity, but I'm relatively certain that anyone who has ever been relatively certain of themselves will display at least a measure of dismay when contradicted and/or corrected on their subject of surety.
That, and those who bother to look into things and are knowledgeable enough to know what they are not knowledgeable in will probably not be wrong on a regular basis, and will be even further dismayed by the unfamiliarity of the feeling. Thus, the nerdfolk would be far more susceptible to the plague of discomfort and metaphorical bristling at the thought (and experience) of being wrong.
Or perhaps I'm trying to soothe the sting of my own pettiness by drawing sweeping conclusions. I wouldn't hold that against me: we're just human beans here, after all.
And I really hate being wrong, you know.
"It's like the jarring note when someone scrapes their nails on a blackboard" This describes it so well. What I really despise is when people expect you to be right because they consider you smart and then make a big deal out of it when you're not. Not only is it incredibly rude, "hahaa, you're stupid after all!", but it also makes me that much more reluctant to open my mouth the next time around. Everyone should be allowed to make mistakes.
ReplyDeleteI guess what I'm really trying to say here is that I've been stalking your blogs for years now and should learn to comment.
You should definitely make a habit of it! <3 Haha, I wondered for a while how you managed to find me, since I never linked my previous blog here - but then I remembered that you probably stalk my twitter as well. *grin*
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