Post Anq51VCtdqI2e5hPo8 by futurebird@sauropods.win
(DIR) More posts by futurebird@sauropods.win
(DIR) Post #AnpdR8ys6SlqWbZscy by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-08T11:47:50Z
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My very hottest take of all is that, yes, Dorthy there *are* such things as "stupid questions."(Although they are very very rare and almost never the kind of question people feel compelled to preface with "this might be a stupid question ... but ...")
(DIR) Post #AnpfO3kvGzCPMLi6EK by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-08T12:09:41Z
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I guess I'm a little negative on the whole "there are no stupid questions" ethos since asking the right question is a undervalued skill. A really remarkable question can do more than the most excellent of answers. Questions are important and it's worth thinking about if the ones you are asking are good or not. I do support the effort to get people over the hump of simply admitting they have questions, that they do not know everything. But, let us go further. Consider Paul Erdős!
(DIR) Post #AnpfQxNlQTcwSeG97g by lienrag@mastodon.tedomum.net
2024-11-08T12:10:02Z
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@futurebird I remember asking a science material doctor if salt was difficult to synthesize...(I mean, I already had my science baccalaureat at this time)And when he answered "well, Na+Cl" I replied "I meant rock salt !" ...
(DIR) Post #AnpfXFLnX7mlvUL5Ci by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-08T12:11:20Z
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@lienrag Is salt famously easy to make? Am *I* asking the stupid question now? :)I know very little chemistry sadly.
(DIR) Post #AnpfYUUIjtL7A9uSeG by lienrag@mastodon.tedomum.net
2024-11-08T12:11:24Z
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@futurebird I thought that we were supposed to consider Phlebas ?
(DIR) Post #AnpfdBnrdQtYf6Ih2e by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-08T12:12:25Z
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@lienrag Oh... wait I do remember there are "salts" as in "things with Na in them" and then there is "salt" as in little cubes of just Na and trace minerals.
(DIR) Post #AnpfeLXiuOlV9tIosa by lienrag@mastodon.tedomum.net
2024-11-08T12:12:26Z
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@futurebird Well, you put some sodium and some chlore solutions (both easy to find) together, and you get sodium chlorate...
(DIR) Post #AnpfwJGC8OfBI7fYDg by mcc@mastodon.social
2024-11-08T12:15:51Z
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@futurebird rather than "I might have a stupid question" I've been going lately with "I have a nice question"…I know people who, on grounds of resisting ableism, at one time asked me to remove words such as "stupid", "dumb", "idiot" from my casual vocabulary. And like… I am not saying I agree with their reasoning per se, but I did find after I made that change the things I said and wrote noticeably improved. Clearer, more expressive.
(DIR) Post #AnpgQBZNICQo7ut1Em by wmd@chaos.social
2024-11-08T12:21:14Z
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@futurebird ooh Paul Erdős! Certainly seemed to have an amazing skill in asking questions. While I think you can have great without having bad. I think the 'just asking questions' crowd has proven there are stupid ones... 🙄Glad to be reminded of Erdős. Good example of you can be awkward and bring people together while firing up their curiousity.
(DIR) Post #AnpgfHdJ1zjNH9vNJY by jayalane@mastodon.online
2024-11-08T12:23:59Z
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@futurebird Douglas Hodstadter used to have a convention that the answer "mu" (Japanese not, rather than a Greek letter) was an answer to unask the question, kind of to reject premises contained in the question. "Is the answer to this question no?" "Mu" not quite the same thing tho.
(DIR) Post #Anphd2fBohgSDuIh8K by superflippy@mastodon.xyz
2024-11-08T12:34:47Z
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@futurebird This reminds me of that girl in my college class who did her nails while the professor reviewed what was going to be on the test. At the end, he said, “Are there any questions?” And she suddenly looked up and asked, “So what’s going to be on the test?”
(DIR) Post #Anphl8u6UxtRtX8h4i by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2024-11-08T12:36:14Z
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@futurebird ok. So what kinds of questions are there? There are bad faith questions (stupid). There are "more a comment than a question" (often stupid). There are questions that involve a misunderstanding (not stupid, a good way to resolve the misunderstanding is to ask the question). There are questions to which you should really already know the answer (not stupid, but not good either). There are questions to which there is a straightforward answer (fine, but not great). There are questions that require a really long answer (good, but often unproductive in context). And then there are the questions that make the person you're asking stop for a minute and go "hmm... " (This is the good stuff).
(DIR) Post #AnpkCOjjwLqYj6Ppui by WearsHats@realsocial.life
2024-11-08T13:03:35Z
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@futurebird There are very smart questions. There are good questions to ask. But there are no stupid questions. If you sincerely don't know and sincerely want to know, then it's not stupid to ask. (That's all the phrase is supposed to mean, AFAICT.)If those two conditions aren't met, then you aren't asking the question in good faith.
(DIR) Post #AnpsUxRORuNLCmCA40 by squirrellybob@mastodon.social
2024-11-08T14:36:34Z
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@futurebird i had a high school psych teacher who would say (among other things) “there are no stupid questions...... just stupid people”
(DIR) Post #AnpwNQJPcdesFQ7o0m by justafrog@mstdn.social
2024-11-08T15:20:00Z
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@futurebird Sometimes, the question demonstrates not only a lack of knowledge and/or understanding, but also a lack of willingness to do anything about those issues.It's fine to tell people with those shoddy questions "Try harder. Next question." instead of cautiously stepping through the nonsense, while everyone groans.
(DIR) Post #Anq51VCtdqI2e5hPo8 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-08T16:56:56Z
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@squirrellybob ouch
(DIR) Post #Anq5KppzA7O88FCY3k by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2024-11-08T13:05:05Z
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@Spoofer3 @futurebird definitely. My four year old asks good questions which, if a colleague asked me, I would be very puzzled. I think it only makes sense to individuate questions quite finely so they take into account asker and context.
(DIR) Post #Anq5KrMHVWoeqhJr2O by xris@ecoevo.social
2024-11-08T13:27:20Z
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@ScmbradleyWhen I do nature education, there are often families with young children. They ask the best questions! They challenge me to review my own assumptions, and remind me that what I "know" I had to learn.More often than not, it breaks the ice for adults to ask their own questions.@Spoofer3 @futurebird
(DIR) Post #Anq9aj24d9TfTbgisS by PTR_K@dice.camp
2024-11-08T17:48:06Z
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@futurebird I guess I'm frustrated with less with the nature of a question, than with the motive behind it or situation where it is asked.Sometimes I know so little about something I need to find out about that my own question admittedly might be nearly nonsense, just the best I could think of start the process of inquiry with my limited mental model of a situation.If someone similarly came to me with a humblely misunderstanding question, I think I'd tend to be patient with them.
(DIR) Post #AnqTiOxT9FNMcKTKPA by jaycruz@fosstodon.org
2024-11-08T21:33:35Z
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@futurebird Another way of saying it is that if your not thinking about what your going to ask before you ask it, you’re probably asking a stupid question.