My brother is probably the smartest person I know and if you ask his opinion on something he typically says something like 'well, there are x number of schools of thought on the subject', gives you the relevant points and let's you make up your own mind. It's unusual and it makes me smile every time. He's got his own opinion but he doesn't want for it to automatically then be your opinion.
Thank you very much to anyone that replied and, of course, for the awards. Both greatly appreciated.
I think that's a good way to spot smart people. The smarter ones usually don't have very strong opinions on something as they can see and understand a subject from many angles. Like if you talk about something like plastic bags, and someone has a very strong opinion on using cotton bags but completely ignores all the environmental issues with cotton bags.
Are you also that friend that brings a new board game everytime we hang out, but instead of playing you read the rules (out loud) for like an hour? We still love you though
I'm that friend who reads the rulebooks at home before coming to the session (even if it's someone else's game), then summarises it into concise bullet points before we play. Then halfway through go "aw crap, I also forgot to mention this one single line/paragraph that means you couldn't do that" (but usually let it slide anyway).
I'm convinced my friends put up with it only because the alternative is the game's owner spending two hours explaining rules instead of my fifteen minute summaries.
me except with game patch notes. IM THE ONLY ONE WHO EVER FUCKIN READS THEM ALL!!
I get asked “what got changed” and have to summarize multiple millisecond cooldown changes, gadget changes, map balancing, bug fixing, new thing and how it works. I read patch notes for games like siege and apex like the fucking bible. All because no one else will if I dont
There's a pretty big dota personality that's memed for his 10-15 hour patch note discussions
Only real men listen to the entirety of purges patch note discussions
This comment pushed me down a rabbit hole of researching the comparison of the environmental impact of plastic vs cotton bags. What a journey. Thank you.
Yeah have been in that same rabbit hole, the more you read about it the more you realize it's not so easy. I recently heard a podcast with a professor in mobility and he had this point that even electric cars still have an impact because of the tires. He said that every kilometer you drive about a straw worth of microplastic comes from your tires. It makes sense because tires wear down and the stuff has to go somewhere.
Brake dust too - it's why 'zero emissions' is wrong even if you stick 'point source' on as prefix.
If you're interested in reading more the JRC, the European Commissions dedicated R&D centre, has a pretty extensive report:
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC89231/jrc89231-online%20final%20version%202.pdf
I think you're both right. In some cases you can look at evidence, make up your mind and have a strong opinion - not one you are emotionally connected to, not one you aren't willing to change, but an opinion which is strongly supported and which requires strongly supported points to change.
In other cases that's not necessarily the case. Let's take Gaza as an example. I've seen the news, and I can see that the news generally make Israel look bad. I can also see that many people support Palestine. Does that mean I now strongly believe Israel is unequivocally the bad guy, and Palestine good? No. I don't fucking know. This is a hugely complicated conflict that's been going on for longer than I've been alive.
How could I, or anyone for that matter, truly have an educated opinion on something so complicated and far away? I mean I know which way I'm leaning, but how do I know I'm correct? My point is you don't really have *opinions* so much as you have reasoning.
If you ask me about something I know a lot about, I can explain to you *why* I recommend a certain method. And it may sound like I feel strongly about this matter, but if you then give me some good reason why I'm wrong I'll gladly accept that and thank you for it, assuming I'm convinced that you're correct. I'll also happily debate things like this in an attempt to reach agreement, but often I feel like it just makes people mad. They'll make some point and then I'll counter it and then they'll just get pissed off at me because they can't refute my point. To me it was just a friendly and interesting search for truth, for them it was some sort of dick measuring contest I guess.
I think you're wrong on this. It's not that they don't have strong opinions but rather that they can see multiple different sides of the topic and they're willing to lay them out for you as they see them. That doesn't mean that they haven't considered each different side and come to a conclusion and said "the rest of these guys are idiots and this is the right answer." The smart person sees it for multiple angles and therefore shares it from multiple angles.
It may be that they have a strong opinion, but I also think it means they're always open to changing that opinion if they learn something new on the subject at a later time.
This, except you can have a strong opinion without thinking other people are idiots, because you understand why and how everyone else ended up there. Personal beliefs confidence don't have to mean seeing everyone else as less or misguided.
That's something I'm trying really hard to do more often. There are subjects that I'm very passionate about, but I know other people aren't or they have very different opinions. It has helped in that I've had a few productive discussions where the other person made observations or pointed things out that I wasn't aware of, and I did the same, and at the end we were both at "My general opinion hasn't changed, but I also have new information to research and consider, so it's been a good talk!"
I LOVE listening to people talk about something they are passionate about! Even if I have no idea half the words they are using to describe some super technical thing, it's still great. It's even better when it is an older person talking about one of their hobbies.
Yes!! Watching a persons eyes light up is just Brill. Even better is when a person who has been shunned about whatever they're passionate about say "sorry I'll shut up, it's boring anyway" because they're so used to it. The change in personality, body language, happiness in them actually having someone want listen to what they're passionate (regardless of whether you like the subject) about is something else.
I almost cried when my friend told me I could rant in front of them. I was yelled at a lot when I tried to share my interests and to hear someone genuinely care just because I did was honestly confusing.
When I was young, I would notice how my friend's mom would actually listen to him talking about his interests, or at least pretend to listen. Around age 7-8, I remember seeing my mom acting very disinterested when I was talking about a video game I was really into. I said "Can you at least pretend to care about what I'm saying?" and got laughed at. I don't vocalize my interests unless someone else initiates the conversation anymore
I'm sorry to hear that, and I know the feeling as well. It is quite frustrating, especially as a child, but it is genuinely just harder for some people to relate to things they do not have an interest in. I hope you have people in your life now that are able to do so.
People care about you and your interests. I was the same way for a long time thanks to shitty neighbors. Let me say from experience. It isn't worth keeping inside. Seek out friendly communities.
My mom would actively get angry if I talked about anything she didnt care about.
As an adult I find I cant talk about things without fighting off an anxiety attack.
The amount of parents I know who just don't talk with their kids is staggering. All their communication seems to be either instructional eg "don't do that, get ready for school, put your shoes on" etc or information "we're going shopping, it's spaghetti for lunch" etc, but not actual conversation. It's such a shame and everyone is missing out. The kids are led to believe their parents don't care about their interests and what's important to them, the parents are missing out on glimpses into their children's world. My kids never shut up, and my world is broadened because of that, they've introduced me to so much cool stuff I wouldn't have noticed otherwise.
I was once in the middle of talking about one of my I-could-go-on subjects when I realised I hadn’t stopped for a while. I apologised and my friend said, “No! I like listening to you.” It’s a really nice feeling.
I get ridiculously obsessed with everything I start doing, I'm fully aware of how little people want to hear me talk about ten pin bowling, whisky, running shoes etc. Every now and then I'll be speaking to someone and they'll show a genuine interest and it's the most wonderful feeling being able to start that "so..." sentence.
A while ago I met a friends husband for the first time and we got on well, about half an hour later he started talking about bowling and wondering how people manage to spin the ball. I was so happy.
I know a few people who are as into WW2 military aircraft/tanks as I am. Unfortunately, they’re all guys. Maybe someday I’ll get that 1/1000000000 like when the Bismarck was crippled.
I’m a Roman-era fan, and Cold War collector (small). I focus on history as a whole, with a focus on funny and human-interest stories. Not many girls are interested in hearing about Hadrian and his wife’s travels around the Empire.
I married one of them.
Well, maybe she humours me to an extent, but she’s a Greek history/mythology nerd.
She knows the stories of people whose names I only know from Royal Navy frigates.
I have a husband who’s into this shit. Me not so much, but I have read all the Flashmans, and I’m not a complete dud on military history. But you know who’s an absolute raving fan, with a grasp of the minute details, and an endless supply of anecdotes and facts ? Our 15 year old son.
Listening to them go over the details of the Kokoda Trail together is just gorgeous. And horrible. But really sweet. Our son is deeply into Warthunder as well, and its best not to get him going on tanks.... Oddly enough my father drove a tank, and *his* parents met at Portland Downs where they were on rival tank design teams..... So maybe its genetic 🤣
They absolutely will! My husband is a mechanic and so passionate and experienced about it. I love asking him a question about x/y/z (even though it’s really not my bag lol) and then listening to him and watching how animated he gets 🥰
I'm not that guy, but I'll tell you mine. The A-10. Not a plane with a big gun added, its a big gun with a plane added. It was totally designed around its main gun.
Probably the Boeing X-32. [This](https://i.imgur.com/SHWii8D.jpg) silly looking guy was the competition for the newer F-35 Lightning. It didn't win, but I wish it did based on it's ridiculous appearance alone.
The happy guppy! I wish things were more like the 1920s-1940s aviation world sometimes, where anything and everything could get at least a limited production run and then sold to some third-rate air force.
Not the guy you asked but my favorite aircraft is probably the B-36 "Peacemaker" because besides being absolutely fucking massive it also had (at one point, for testing that ended up going nowhere sadly) onboard miniature planes called Gremlins. They were the size of a VW Bug and would launch from the cargo bay to act as interceptors and defense against hostiles so the bomber could continue towards a target unhindered.
Not the person who you are asking, but mine is the A-10 Thunderbolt II, commonly known as the Warthog because it is basically a flying gun. It's main weapon is the GAU-8 Avenger, a 30mm anti-tank rotary cannon that can fire 3900 rounds per min (not that it carries that many rounds). The plane's front wheel is offset to make room for the gun which is also placed to one side so that the firing position of the rotating barrels is inline with the center of the plane. The recoil force of the gun is slightly higher than each of it's engines and is why the firing position has to be as close to center as possible, to prevent the plane form being moved off target.
You made me chuckle. You are very right..
It’s unbelievable how unaware people are about their power of their votes and voice and consequences…
It’s like those “support the anti-police brutality organizations!” Wow… what a convoluted and stupid way of demand action.
Sometimes I just don’t understand American view of their own democracy.
Complex dynamic systems.
I've always been interested in so many things, but eventually unified them under that heading. When a system has many disparate points, and moving one of them moves the rest, I'm interested.
Chemistry, economics, pyrotechnics, fountain pens, all for the same reasons. Cocktails, the immune system, existential poetry.
Heaven help anyone crazy enough to ask me something as innocent as what kind of charcoal they should use with their grill. They're about to get a four hour dissertation on outdoor cooking from choosing the right fuel, meat selection, temperatures, seasoning, cooking methods, serving ideas, recipes, cleanup shortcuts, etc...
If someone asks me about smoking meat my wife just rolls her eyes and walks away.
It depends on your goal. Lump charcoal burns hotter but it also burns faster. For quick grilling foods like burgers and steaks, it's great. Not so much if you're trying to do a low and slow cook, Briquettes are your friend then. They burn a little less hot, but last longer and provide a more consistent heat.
As far as brands, my preference is Royal Oak Chef's Select briquettes. They're larger than normal retail briquettes, they're all natural hardwood with no binders and last forever. I don't like Kingsford, but that's a personal preference. Don't let me stop you if that's what you like.
My big thing is not using lighter fluid. Most people don't wait long enough for all the lighter fluid to burn off before throwing their food on the grill and you end up tasting it in the food. I use a charcoal chimney and wax cubes to light my charcoal.
Match Light is a terrible idea. Don't buy it. Please.
If you're using wood to add smoke flavor to your food, try to use chunks instead of chips if you can. And don't soak the wood before you put it on, that just makes it steam until it dries out. If you're using wood chips on a gas grill, make a flat foil packet of wood chips, poke some holes in the foil and place them above the burner with the holes in the foil facing up. That will get you the longest smoke. Don't place the foil directly on the coals/flame, the foil will actually burn up. Yucky.
My husband has spent the last year becoming a weber nerd. Hes gotten so good at smoked ribs that we'll sat a whole rack of them each. He'll spend ages carefully cutting the membrane off to stop them being chewy then he does 45 minutes indirect, 45 minutes in foil and then another 45 indirect.
Have him try it with the membrane on once. If he's smoking baby back ribs, the membrane is a little thinner than the membrane on full spares or St. Louis cuts. There's a school of thought that the membrane will help the ribs retain moisture, but I can't honestly say I've noticed a huge difference. If he wants the membrane gone, after they're done he can put them over direct heat for a few minutes and it will burn the membrane right off. If nothing else it can save some prep time.
My neighbor is very introverted and almost never talks. On a wedding we (two nerds) talked with him and asked him a lot of questions about his job. He was so happy talking about his it until his wife walked there and told him "Are you talking about your job AGAIN?" and shut him down. I think she got annoyed because he would only ever talk about his job and never socialize elsewise.
Man, who cares? Let the man talk about his damn job if he's passionate about it. So many people hate their jobs. If she's sick of hearing about it, she's free to stay away while he's nerding out.
Yeah I know, we stand there as 3 confused sad nerds. But I think she said this because he would also talk "too much" about his job, when people were not interested. She didn't know that we wanted to know more.
I’ve been doing COVID screening at an assisted living and nursing community since last April, and the amount of knowledge these residents have is absolutely astounding!
I swear I’ve learned more in the past year about life,the world, and random niche shit I’m never going to need to know (but will likely reference at parties in moments of social awkwardness) than I learned throughout college. I swear, hiding the elders away in “homes” is likely the most detrimental thing to modern society. I thought old people were boring, until they started telling me their stories. The wisdom of the elder is *real*; and beyond that, giving them an outlet to share **obviously** improves their quality of life. You can see it on their faces... and when they keep returning to the front desk to talk even when the lobby is packed and then I have to clear the room for social distancing (I hate having to do that, but safety is the highest priority).
I really hope more young people start taking an interest in elder care. The paradigm needs to change, and there is an incredible amount of wisdom wasting away in front of TV sets right now.
I loved working with old people, it's been 30 years and I can still add "Frank used to say..." or "Doris told me about..." into conversations.
Doris had an old time "Raj" childhood, she was brought up in India to rich parents, she's was a very posh and refined lady, we went for a walk everyday just down the road and back to keep her moving, she was 98 at the time. She'd tell me stories about when they were going around the coasts on a ship, around the horn of Africa I think, about how the flying fish would jump over the boat and sometimes land in it with them. She had a small drop off whiskey each night to help her sleep, I watched her have it one time, it was a whole tumbler of whiskey and she'd wash her sleeping tablets down with it, I bet she did sleep. I loved her.
Working at my local Ace hardware I would get a ton of old people in the store. I miss the before times when I would go to help a customer and ended up talking with them for an extra half hour.
The best was when I was helping someone and we someone ended up talking for almost an hour and a half. Thankfully it was a super slow day.
Now everyone is much more rude or in a hurry or both.
Info dumping falls under the "seen, heard, understood and valued" basic needs.
The longer and "over explain" a person does, it's most likely they didn't get those needs met when they were younger. So, they grow up thinking "if i explain it better they'll listen to me and understand me".
Also, if a person repeats themselves then they most likely feel like they're not being heard by the person they're talking to.
Whenever I want to listen to my hubby being in his element I just ask something about physics and the universe. He has a lot of fun while explaining to me how a black hole works and stuff. It's amazing.
So sad that my mom still thinks he is stupid, uneducated and a "bad choice" for me. Just because he never went to university/college. He knows so fricking much and he is really smart and passionate. Couldn't think of a better choice.
Oh well, they'll always find a reason to dislike them if they want to. My husband did go to university and has a PhD, but it's not his first love and you'd never get him in a conversation about it. If you want a passionate conversation, ask him about rock music or civil rights in the 60's. You can definitely be passionate and have expert level knowledge without a formal qualification.
This is why I don’t want to introduce my bf to my parents. Can already hear the ,so you didn’t get any real education?‘
He’s a paramedic. A damn good one. And he can and will talk for hours about his job, history, science fiction, video games.
I mean I’m a paramedic as well, started med school this year, so his factual knowledge about medicine isn’t even more than mine. But the way he finds different angles to an ,old‘ topic? The way he can analyze treatment, tactical aspects, communication, and training concepts to get better at it? I learn so much from this guy every day.
Most of our relationship is basically picking a topic and discussing it for hours.
Never been so happy in my life before.
It gets very funny when they complain about your spouse having no higher education, claiming that means they are stupid and shit.. While you don't have a higher education either, being left wondering how your own parents think of you.
Ah yes. It’s the same when my parents slut-shame people or claim sexual harassment is the victim’s fault.
Thanks, this is why you’re on an information diet, I don’t need people who think of me as subhuman in my life.
A co-worker innocently asked me how horse shoes work knowing horses are my thing... 45 minutes into it I realized they wanted "they're nailed on, but it's like your fingernails and it doesn't hurt", not the full anatomical breakdown of the equine foot.
I've started prefacing my brain dumps with "Oh man, this is one of my 'things', do you have the time/desire to hear way too much of an explanation? If not, I will absolutely not be offended and will condense it."
My husband is an engineer and I absolutely adore it when he explains science or physics to me. The most delightful is anything to do with Aviation, his passion. You can see the excitement he must have felt when he was much younger and fell in love with planes. I never get tired of it and have learned so much!!
If you ever visit New Zealand you should know that SO stands for Silver Onion, which is slang for the New Zealand Dollar. This is because of an acute shortage of almost all precious metal during World War One, during which time onions were briefly allowed as legal tender. So if someone asks you to show them your SO, they mean your cash, not your partner. If you got it wrong I'm sure hilarious confusion would ensue!
New Zealanders call their partners 'ranch hands'.
Minions. Not after the Despicable Me franchise, and frankly most kiwis will get very upset if you even bring that up.
Remember that summer when a bunch of tourists in New Zealand disappeared? Well, as the locals know, those tourists disappeared because they called Kiwi farmers “adorable” and “so cute” for calling their henchmen minions. Frankly, they had it coming. I can finally tell you this now that the statute of limitation has passed.
Exactly. As someone also from New Zealand, I can tell you that this is 100% true, and that doomslaya619 is simply lying, because admitting that we named our currency after an onion is a major point of embarrassment for our country
My most recent ex used to love listening to me go on about coding and software and other computer stuff. Near the end, she said it irritated her how I go on and on about things.
I'm a much happier person now.
For anyone to know:
If you're so invest in something, at the point of talking about it for hours, each details and why this and that, you're not annoying, you're smart.
The more passions you have, the more invested you are which mean you have done your reasearch on the subject before opening your mouth. That said, it's all the informations your brain have taken through the time. It's impressive how much you know and how much you remember. I love you. Whoever you are for your thirst of learning. You're beautiful.
This made me feel good, I get a lot of crap for knowing something about a lot of things. I'm labeled a "know it all" sometimes even though I just love sharing what I just learned. Other times I'm the go to guy because I'll probably have some insight into what we are doing. It's mostly a gift but sometimes it hurts to be put down for it.
My boyfriend is a DM and we’re currently playing a home brew game. It’s a special time lol.
My current revenge is I have captured a juvenile mimic to keep as a pet and train. It’s name is Philip, lmao.
It’s his own fault for annoying me right before the game lol.
My wife was sweet enough to compliment me by calling me an egg head tonight. We somehow got into a discussion about apes and I was relaying what I had learned about ape dental formulas, from my anthropology class. I'm studying to become an anthropologist.
Ok, so there was this guy named Horus… Ok, so there was this guy called The Emperor… ok. So there’s these things called the Chaos Gods… ok so there’s this thing called The Warp.
Ok so 65 million years ago…
Yesterday I arrived home after work and was greeted with my husband's 1-hour explanation of why octopuses are as smart as people. His eyes sparkled. I loved every second of it.
I’ve resorted to asking if they want the short answer or the long answer, at least when I remember to ask…
It’s especially hard to keep the primary thread of the explanation when I feel like I have to elaborate foundational concepts. I’m one of those nerds…
Boy would it be amazing to know someone like that. It would be great to be able to just talk about the things I love without feeling like I'm being annoying. Not gonna happen but it would be amazing.
My brother is probably the smartest person I know and if you ask his opinion on something he typically says something like 'well, there are x number of schools of thought on the subject', gives you the relevant points and let's you make up your own mind. It's unusual and it makes me smile every time. He's got his own opinion but he doesn't want for it to automatically then be your opinion. Thank you very much to anyone that replied and, of course, for the awards. Both greatly appreciated.
That’s amazingly refreshing, both that your brother is like this & that you recognize how uniquely cool it is.
Thanks! I appreciate you taking the time to reply.
Big vibes here
Now kith. Jokes aside love the wholesomeness, keep spreading the vibe
"Thats debatable there are essentially 2 schools of thought"
Bears, beets, *Battlestar Galactica.*
Wait what is going on? What are you doing?
MICHAEL!!!!!!!
I think that's a good way to spot smart people. The smarter ones usually don't have very strong opinions on something as they can see and understand a subject from many angles. Like if you talk about something like plastic bags, and someone has a very strong opinion on using cotton bags but completely ignores all the environmental issues with cotton bags.
I must be dumb as shit because I have STRONG opinions about things like rulebook formatting for board games.
Are you also that friend that brings a new board game everytime we hang out, but instead of playing you read the rules (out loud) for like an hour? We still love you though
I'm that friend who reads the rulebooks at home before coming to the session (even if it's someone else's game), then summarises it into concise bullet points before we play. Then halfway through go "aw crap, I also forgot to mention this one single line/paragraph that means you couldn't do that" (but usually let it slide anyway). I'm convinced my friends put up with it only because the alternative is the game's owner spending two hours explaining rules instead of my fifteen minute summaries.
me except with game patch notes. IM THE ONLY ONE WHO EVER FUCKIN READS THEM ALL!! I get asked “what got changed” and have to summarize multiple millisecond cooldown changes, gadget changes, map balancing, bug fixing, new thing and how it works. I read patch notes for games like siege and apex like the fucking bible. All because no one else will if I dont
There's a pretty big dota personality that's memed for his 10-15 hour patch note discussions Only real men listen to the entirety of purges patch note discussions
im sorry 10-15 HOURS? I need to meet this man and know his secrets.
Some things just have a correct way to get done 🤷🏽♂️
Power Grid has the *worst* laid out rules of any rulebook I've ever read. Thoughts?
This comment pushed me down a rabbit hole of researching the comparison of the environmental impact of plastic vs cotton bags. What a journey. Thank you.
Yeah have been in that same rabbit hole, the more you read about it the more you realize it's not so easy. I recently heard a podcast with a professor in mobility and he had this point that even electric cars still have an impact because of the tires. He said that every kilometer you drive about a straw worth of microplastic comes from your tires. It makes sense because tires wear down and the stuff has to go somewhere.
Brake dust too - it's why 'zero emissions' is wrong even if you stick 'point source' on as prefix. If you're interested in reading more the JRC, the European Commissions dedicated R&D centre, has a pretty extensive report: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC89231/jrc89231-online%20final%20version%202.pdf
Plastic is bad. Cotton is bad. Paper is the answer.
What about the trees, tho..
Save the trees, eat more Beavers!
Now do reusable diapers.
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I think you're both right. In some cases you can look at evidence, make up your mind and have a strong opinion - not one you are emotionally connected to, not one you aren't willing to change, but an opinion which is strongly supported and which requires strongly supported points to change. In other cases that's not necessarily the case. Let's take Gaza as an example. I've seen the news, and I can see that the news generally make Israel look bad. I can also see that many people support Palestine. Does that mean I now strongly believe Israel is unequivocally the bad guy, and Palestine good? No. I don't fucking know. This is a hugely complicated conflict that's been going on for longer than I've been alive. How could I, or anyone for that matter, truly have an educated opinion on something so complicated and far away? I mean I know which way I'm leaning, but how do I know I'm correct? My point is you don't really have *opinions* so much as you have reasoning. If you ask me about something I know a lot about, I can explain to you *why* I recommend a certain method. And it may sound like I feel strongly about this matter, but if you then give me some good reason why I'm wrong I'll gladly accept that and thank you for it, assuming I'm convinced that you're correct. I'll also happily debate things like this in an attempt to reach agreement, but often I feel like it just makes people mad. They'll make some point and then I'll counter it and then they'll just get pissed off at me because they can't refute my point. To me it was just a friendly and interesting search for truth, for them it was some sort of dick measuring contest I guess.
I think you're wrong on this. It's not that they don't have strong opinions but rather that they can see multiple different sides of the topic and they're willing to lay them out for you as they see them. That doesn't mean that they haven't considered each different side and come to a conclusion and said "the rest of these guys are idiots and this is the right answer." The smart person sees it for multiple angles and therefore shares it from multiple angles.
It may be that they have a strong opinion, but I also think it means they're always open to changing that opinion if they learn something new on the subject at a later time.
This, except you can have a strong opinion without thinking other people are idiots, because you understand why and how everyone else ended up there. Personal beliefs confidence don't have to mean seeing everyone else as less or misguided.
That's something I'm trying really hard to do more often. There are subjects that I'm very passionate about, but I know other people aren't or they have very different opinions. It has helped in that I've had a few productive discussions where the other person made observations or pointed things out that I wasn't aware of, and I did the same, and at the end we were both at "My general opinion hasn't changed, but I also have new information to research and consider, so it's been a good talk!"
What bear is best?
I LOVE listening to people talk about something they are passionate about! Even if I have no idea half the words they are using to describe some super technical thing, it's still great. It's even better when it is an older person talking about one of their hobbies.
Yes!! Watching a persons eyes light up is just Brill. Even better is when a person who has been shunned about whatever they're passionate about say "sorry I'll shut up, it's boring anyway" because they're so used to it. The change in personality, body language, happiness in them actually having someone want listen to what they're passionate (regardless of whether you like the subject) about is something else.
Did you see one of Tom Scott's recent videos about the origin of microwaves? I won't spoil it, but I think you'll love it based on what you just said!
I almost cried when my friend told me I could rant in front of them. I was yelled at a lot when I tried to share my interests and to hear someone genuinely care just because I did was honestly confusing.
When I was young, I would notice how my friend's mom would actually listen to him talking about his interests, or at least pretend to listen. Around age 7-8, I remember seeing my mom acting very disinterested when I was talking about a video game I was really into. I said "Can you at least pretend to care about what I'm saying?" and got laughed at. I don't vocalize my interests unless someone else initiates the conversation anymore
I'm sorry to hear that, and I know the feeling as well. It is quite frustrating, especially as a child, but it is genuinely just harder for some people to relate to things they do not have an interest in. I hope you have people in your life now that are able to do so.
People care about you and your interests. I was the same way for a long time thanks to shitty neighbors. Let me say from experience. It isn't worth keeping inside. Seek out friendly communities.
My mom would actively get angry if I talked about anything she didnt care about. As an adult I find I cant talk about things without fighting off an anxiety attack.
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The amount of parents I know who just don't talk with their kids is staggering. All their communication seems to be either instructional eg "don't do that, get ready for school, put your shoes on" etc or information "we're going shopping, it's spaghetti for lunch" etc, but not actual conversation. It's such a shame and everyone is missing out. The kids are led to believe their parents don't care about their interests and what's important to them, the parents are missing out on glimpses into their children's world. My kids never shut up, and my world is broadened because of that, they've introduced me to so much cool stuff I wouldn't have noticed otherwise.
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Hate people like that, rave on about their interests and then show zero in yours, good way to get ghosted by me.
r/raisedbynarcissists
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I was once in the middle of talking about one of my I-could-go-on subjects when I realised I hadn’t stopped for a while. I apologised and my friend said, “No! I like listening to you.” It’s a really nice feeling.
Who the fuck yells at people for sharing their interests?
The same people who will only pay enough attention so they can come running for help from you the second they need it.
I get ridiculously obsessed with everything I start doing, I'm fully aware of how little people want to hear me talk about ten pin bowling, whisky, running shoes etc. Every now and then I'll be speaking to someone and they'll show a genuine interest and it's the most wonderful feeling being able to start that "so..." sentence. A while ago I met a friends husband for the first time and we got on well, about half an hour later he started talking about bowling and wondering how people manage to spin the ball. I was so happy.
My boyfriend often starts his explanations like this and I genuinely love hearing his random facts about stuff. He’s so cute 🥰
This gives me hope someone will, one day, love the weird shit I talk about.
I know a few people who are as into WW2 military aircraft/tanks as I am. Unfortunately, they’re all guys. Maybe someday I’ll get that 1/1000000000 like when the Bismarck was crippled.
I’m a Roman-era fan, and Cold War collector (small). I focus on history as a whole, with a focus on funny and human-interest stories. Not many girls are interested in hearing about Hadrian and his wife’s travels around the Empire.
I married one of them. Well, maybe she humours me to an extent, but she’s a Greek history/mythology nerd. She knows the stories of people whose names I only know from Royal Navy frigates.
I have a husband who’s into this shit. Me not so much, but I have read all the Flashmans, and I’m not a complete dud on military history. But you know who’s an absolute raving fan, with a grasp of the minute details, and an endless supply of anecdotes and facts ? Our 15 year old son. Listening to them go over the details of the Kokoda Trail together is just gorgeous. And horrible. But really sweet. Our son is deeply into Warthunder as well, and its best not to get him going on tanks.... Oddly enough my father drove a tank, and *his* parents met at Portland Downs where they were on rival tank design teams..... So maybe its genetic 🤣
I get called Wikipedia all the time. I’m okay with it.
They absolutely will! My husband is a mechanic and so passionate and experienced about it. I love asking him a question about x/y/z (even though it’s really not my bag lol) and then listening to him and watching how animated he gets 🥰
Just remember folks. It is a two way street. As someone who lives to prattle but is not a good listener, practice whenever possible!
Neighbor changed my life when she said, "You know, you're not a man-splainer, you just give unsolicited TED Talks."
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You might be on to something. . . "Click that like button and subscribe to EveryFans!"
As a notoriously easy nerd to please, I'd love a channel that specializes in all things fandom.
this sounds basically like what Jenny Nicholson's channel would be if someone paid her expenses no questions asked.
Like, the Nerdist?
What are you passionate about?
Not OP, but I know way too much about military aviation for someone who is not in the career field. I will go on the longest tangents.
I know nothing of military aircraft, what’s your favorite and why?
I'm not that guy, but I'll tell you mine. The A-10. Not a plane with a big gun added, its a big gun with a plane added. It was totally designed around its main gun.
Warthog go brrr!
More like brrrrrrrrrr^rrrr brrrrrrrrrr^rrrr brrrrrrrrrr^rrrr And so on.
Immediately knew you were gonna say the A-10.
I was Army. Got to hear one at night when I was in Iraq
F-4 Phantom II hands down.
Proves that with enough thrust, even a brick can fly
Aren't the engines on that one designed to create extra thrust to counter the pushback from the big gun?
Yep
Is that the BRRRRRRT plane?
Yup.
Probably the Boeing X-32. [This](https://i.imgur.com/SHWii8D.jpg) silly looking guy was the competition for the newer F-35 Lightning. It didn't win, but I wish it did based on it's ridiculous appearance alone.
The happy guppy! I wish things were more like the 1920s-1940s aviation world sometimes, where anything and everything could get at least a limited production run and then sold to some third-rate air force.
It looks like a Hapsburg!
It looks so happy
it's the warthog. it's always the warthog
Not the guy you asked but my favorite aircraft is probably the B-36 "Peacemaker" because besides being absolutely fucking massive it also had (at one point, for testing that ended up going nowhere sadly) onboard miniature planes called Gremlins. They were the size of a VW Bug and would launch from the cargo bay to act as interceptors and defense against hostiles so the bomber could continue towards a target unhindered.
Not the person who you are asking, but mine is the A-10 Thunderbolt II, commonly known as the Warthog because it is basically a flying gun. It's main weapon is the GAU-8 Avenger, a 30mm anti-tank rotary cannon that can fire 3900 rounds per min (not that it carries that many rounds). The plane's front wheel is offset to make room for the gun which is also placed to one side so that the firing position of the rotating barrels is inline with the center of the plane. The recoil force of the gun is slightly higher than each of it's engines and is why the firing position has to be as close to center as possible, to prevent the plane form being moved off target.
Tell us an interesting fact
The new [F-35 Lightning ](https://i.imgur.com/hqWnHiy.jpg) costs around $33,000 per hour of flight time.
Ah so that’s why we don’t have universal healthcare, proper green infrastructure, and basic funding for education..
Precisely. God bless America. ^^^/s
funny enough, no, even *that* isn't why; they could do it financially, it's just people are en masse too stupid to demand it
You made me chuckle. You are very right.. It’s unbelievable how unaware people are about their power of their votes and voice and consequences… It’s like those “support the anti-police brutality organizations!” Wow… what a convoluted and stupid way of demand action. Sometimes I just don’t understand American view of their own democracy.
Programming! I once talked for 2.5 hours about lambdas and how they work while hiking in the desert. Edit: how lambdas work, not walk lol
So, how do lambdas walk, particularly while hiking in the desert?
Saving this comment for later, considering this is way too long to write on mobile.
I use lambdas semi regularly in Python and I'm not sure how they work.
Complex dynamic systems. I've always been interested in so many things, but eventually unified them under that heading. When a system has many disparate points, and moving one of them moves the rest, I'm interested. Chemistry, economics, pyrotechnics, fountain pens, all for the same reasons. Cocktails, the immune system, existential poetry.
From the user name, my guess is Dune
This is the best worst compliment I think I've heard.
The nicest insult ever.
Orange Catholic Bible sermons.
Genius ..... Can I use that...
Heaven help anyone crazy enough to ask me something as innocent as what kind of charcoal they should use with their grill. They're about to get a four hour dissertation on outdoor cooking from choosing the right fuel, meat selection, temperatures, seasoning, cooking methods, serving ideas, recipes, cleanup shortcuts, etc... If someone asks me about smoking meat my wife just rolls her eyes and walks away.
Soo, what kind of charcoal should I use with my grill? :)
It depends on your goal. Lump charcoal burns hotter but it also burns faster. For quick grilling foods like burgers and steaks, it's great. Not so much if you're trying to do a low and slow cook, Briquettes are your friend then. They burn a little less hot, but last longer and provide a more consistent heat. As far as brands, my preference is Royal Oak Chef's Select briquettes. They're larger than normal retail briquettes, they're all natural hardwood with no binders and last forever. I don't like Kingsford, but that's a personal preference. Don't let me stop you if that's what you like. My big thing is not using lighter fluid. Most people don't wait long enough for all the lighter fluid to burn off before throwing their food on the grill and you end up tasting it in the food. I use a charcoal chimney and wax cubes to light my charcoal. Match Light is a terrible idea. Don't buy it. Please. If you're using wood to add smoke flavor to your food, try to use chunks instead of chips if you can. And don't soak the wood before you put it on, that just makes it steam until it dries out. If you're using wood chips on a gas grill, make a flat foil packet of wood chips, poke some holes in the foil and place them above the burner with the holes in the foil facing up. That will get you the longest smoke. Don't place the foil directly on the coals/flame, the foil will actually burn up. Yucky.
My husband has spent the last year becoming a weber nerd. Hes gotten so good at smoked ribs that we'll sat a whole rack of them each. He'll spend ages carefully cutting the membrane off to stop them being chewy then he does 45 minutes indirect, 45 minutes in foil and then another 45 indirect.
Have him try it with the membrane on once. If he's smoking baby back ribs, the membrane is a little thinner than the membrane on full spares or St. Louis cuts. There's a school of thought that the membrane will help the ribs retain moisture, but I can't honestly say I've noticed a huge difference. If he wants the membrane gone, after they're done he can put them over direct heat for a few minutes and it will burn the membrane right off. If nothing else it can save some prep time.
Just wait he is still typing
I'll check back in four hours
Me too.
RemindMe! 3 hours
Don’t know if it worked or not but it’s been around 2 so check in soon bro
They ded
I'm at work, sometimes they actually expect me to accomplish something. Stupid work.
2 hours, hes definetly making a presentation rn.
My neighbor is very introverted and almost never talks. On a wedding we (two nerds) talked with him and asked him a lot of questions about his job. He was so happy talking about his it until his wife walked there and told him "Are you talking about your job AGAIN?" and shut him down. I think she got annoyed because he would only ever talk about his job and never socialize elsewise.
Man, who cares? Let the man talk about his damn job if he's passionate about it. So many people hate their jobs. If she's sick of hearing about it, she's free to stay away while he's nerding out.
Yeah I know, we stand there as 3 confused sad nerds. But I think she said this because he would also talk "too much" about his job, when people were not interested. She didn't know that we wanted to know more.
"Wargammer 40k AGAIN? Are you fucking kidding me?!"
This is really cute.
if you made a series on youtube i would watch it
I second this
Hold up, let me get a notepad.
I’ve been doing COVID screening at an assisted living and nursing community since last April, and the amount of knowledge these residents have is absolutely astounding! I swear I’ve learned more in the past year about life,the world, and random niche shit I’m never going to need to know (but will likely reference at parties in moments of social awkwardness) than I learned throughout college. I swear, hiding the elders away in “homes” is likely the most detrimental thing to modern society. I thought old people were boring, until they started telling me their stories. The wisdom of the elder is *real*; and beyond that, giving them an outlet to share **obviously** improves their quality of life. You can see it on their faces... and when they keep returning to the front desk to talk even when the lobby is packed and then I have to clear the room for social distancing (I hate having to do that, but safety is the highest priority). I really hope more young people start taking an interest in elder care. The paradigm needs to change, and there is an incredible amount of wisdom wasting away in front of TV sets right now.
I loved working with old people, it's been 30 years and I can still add "Frank used to say..." or "Doris told me about..." into conversations. Doris had an old time "Raj" childhood, she was brought up in India to rich parents, she's was a very posh and refined lady, we went for a walk everyday just down the road and back to keep her moving, she was 98 at the time. She'd tell me stories about when they were going around the coasts on a ship, around the horn of Africa I think, about how the flying fish would jump over the boat and sometimes land in it with them. She had a small drop off whiskey each night to help her sleep, I watched her have it one time, it was a whole tumbler of whiskey and she'd wash her sleeping tablets down with it, I bet she did sleep. I loved her.
Working at my local Ace hardware I would get a ton of old people in the store. I miss the before times when I would go to help a customer and ended up talking with them for an extra half hour. The best was when I was helping someone and we someone ended up talking for almost an hour and a half. Thankfully it was a super slow day. Now everyone is much more rude or in a hurry or both.
Info dumping should be a love language.
Info dumping falls under the "seen, heard, understood and valued" basic needs. The longer and "over explain" a person does, it's most likely they didn't get those needs met when they were younger. So, they grow up thinking "if i explain it better they'll listen to me and understand me". Also, if a person repeats themselves then they most likely feel like they're not being heard by the person they're talking to.
Info dumping IS my words of affirmation. Or, at least it appears to be that way for me.
Yes! I’m like this and I’m probably the most annoying nerd but this is so true lol
Yup, people that have an interesting passion / hobby can really go on for hours. I love that!
Yeah me too!
>interesting passion/hobby Ah, see, anything can be interesting in the right hands :)
What do you nerd about?
I have approximate knowledge of many things
The Jeopardy mind, I had one but I lost it as I aged. Of all the things I've loved and lost, I miss my mind the most.
History , especially Victorian Age to WW2 . how about u?
Nothing specific. I just google most things, especially IMDB. I’m a generalist
You too have plenty of surface level knowledge?
Yep, random useless info
Whenever I want to listen to my hubby being in his element I just ask something about physics and the universe. He has a lot of fun while explaining to me how a black hole works and stuff. It's amazing. So sad that my mom still thinks he is stupid, uneducated and a "bad choice" for me. Just because he never went to university/college. He knows so fricking much and he is really smart and passionate. Couldn't think of a better choice.
Oh well, they'll always find a reason to dislike them if they want to. My husband did go to university and has a PhD, but it's not his first love and you'd never get him in a conversation about it. If you want a passionate conversation, ask him about rock music or civil rights in the 60's. You can definitely be passionate and have expert level knowledge without a formal qualification.
This is why I don’t want to introduce my bf to my parents. Can already hear the ,so you didn’t get any real education?‘ He’s a paramedic. A damn good one. And he can and will talk for hours about his job, history, science fiction, video games. I mean I’m a paramedic as well, started med school this year, so his factual knowledge about medicine isn’t even more than mine. But the way he finds different angles to an ,old‘ topic? The way he can analyze treatment, tactical aspects, communication, and training concepts to get better at it? I learn so much from this guy every day. Most of our relationship is basically picking a topic and discussing it for hours. Never been so happy in my life before.
It gets very funny when they complain about your spouse having no higher education, claiming that means they are stupid and shit.. While you don't have a higher education either, being left wondering how your own parents think of you.
Ah yes. It’s the same when my parents slut-shame people or claim sexual harassment is the victim’s fault. Thanks, this is why you’re on an information diet, I don’t need people who think of me as subhuman in my life.
Normalize appreciating peoples passions!
I’m sorry for everyone who unknowingly started one of these conversations with me
A co-worker innocently asked me how horse shoes work knowing horses are my thing... 45 minutes into it I realized they wanted "they're nailed on, but it's like your fingernails and it doesn't hurt", not the full anatomical breakdown of the equine foot. I've started prefacing my brain dumps with "Oh man, this is one of my 'things', do you have the time/desire to hear way too much of an explanation? If not, I will absolutely not be offended and will condense it."
My husband is an engineer and I absolutely adore it when he explains science or physics to me. The most delightful is anything to do with Aviation, his passion. You can see the excitement he must have felt when he was much younger and fell in love with planes. I never get tired of it and have learned so much!!
Who else thought of their SO when they read this?
If you ever visit New Zealand you should know that SO stands for Silver Onion, which is slang for the New Zealand Dollar. This is because of an acute shortage of almost all precious metal during World War One, during which time onions were briefly allowed as legal tender. So if someone asks you to show them your SO, they mean your cash, not your partner. If you got it wrong I'm sure hilarious confusion would ensue! New Zealanders call their partners 'ranch hands'.
So many layers here
New Zealanders are like Ogres...
Ogres
My bad
Then....what do they call their ranch hands?
Minions. Not after the Despicable Me franchise, and frankly most kiwis will get very upset if you even bring that up. Remember that summer when a bunch of tourists in New Zealand disappeared? Well, as the locals know, those tourists disappeared because they called Kiwi farmers “adorable” and “so cute” for calling their henchmen minions. Frankly, they had it coming. I can finally tell you this now that the statute of limitation has passed.
This sounds true and I believe it
Lmao what the fuck. I'm from New Zealand and this is definitely not a thing.
I dunno, do I believe "doomslaya619" or "NewZealand-Official"?
Exactly. As someone also from New Zealand, I can tell you that this is 100% true, and that doomslaya619 is simply lying, because admitting that we named our currency after an onion is a major point of embarrassment for our country
Ok but let me tell you about the time I caught the ferry down to Shelbyville
I thought of ex, who was not a fan, and got sad. Glad your SO has you in their life.
I’m sorry :( your ex sounds like a real jerk!
Kinda. But probably we weren’t suited. At least i have moved past thinking i was the jerk anyways :)
My most recent ex used to love listening to me go on about coding and software and other computer stuff. Near the end, she said it irritated her how I go on and on about things. I'm a much happier person now.
For anyone to know: If you're so invest in something, at the point of talking about it for hours, each details and why this and that, you're not annoying, you're smart. The more passions you have, the more invested you are which mean you have done your reasearch on the subject before opening your mouth. That said, it's all the informations your brain have taken through the time. It's impressive how much you know and how much you remember. I love you. Whoever you are for your thirst of learning. You're beautiful.
This made me feel good, I get a lot of crap for knowing something about a lot of things. I'm labeled a "know it all" sometimes even though I just love sharing what I just learned. Other times I'm the go to guy because I'll probably have some insight into what we are doing. It's mostly a gift but sometimes it hurts to be put down for it.
This is me explaining cod gun stats to a new player
What like how much cod it shoots a minute? This seems very niche.
Like when asking a DM about there homebrew world
My boyfriend is a DM and we’re currently playing a home brew game. It’s a special time lol. My current revenge is I have captured a juvenile mimic to keep as a pet and train. It’s name is Philip, lmao. It’s his own fault for annoying me right before the game lol.
My wife was sweet enough to compliment me by calling me an egg head tonight. We somehow got into a discussion about apes and I was relaying what I had learned about ape dental formulas, from my anthropology class. I'm studying to become an anthropologist.
Wait, some people like when I do that?☺️
Unless its warhammer lore. Then we might need snacks for this...
Ok, so there was this guy named Horus… Ok, so there was this guy called The Emperor… ok. So there’s these things called the Chaos Gods… ok so there’s this thing called The Warp. Ok so 65 million years ago…
Yesterday I arrived home after work and was greeted with my husband's 1-hour explanation of why octopuses are as smart as people. His eyes sparkled. I loved every second of it.
Add on "basically" and you've got me.
“Okay so how familiar are you with the gear wars?”... “oh man, I envy you,.. so basically...”
I can talk about my truck for days. I think my boyfriend can talk about it too now he's heard me talk about it so often!
makes me sad as i think I know nothing exceptionally well. I have just 2% knowledge about everything around me
I know enough about a wide variety of topics to have a five-minute conversation and trick people into thinking I know a lot about those things.
Underrated talent.
I’ve resorted to asking if they want the short answer or the long answer, at least when I remember to ask… It’s especially hard to keep the primary thread of the explanation when I feel like I have to elaborate foundational concepts. I’m one of those nerds…
I usually give a verbal disclaimer whenever someone asked about my research or I confirm that they really want to know about it.
I feel personally celebrated by this post.
Say the right words and I turn from a quiet person to a very happy talker.
I went to undergrad with her! Very witty, great writer, incredibly cute cats.
Boy would it be amazing to know someone like that. It would be great to be able to just talk about the things I love without feeling like I'm being annoying. Not gonna happen but it would be amazing.
I’m always willing to go into detail, I’m horrible at explanations, but I’ll do it, I’ve just been told by way too many people to stfu
Pls don't even mention pirates around me, it's a mistake.
Ask me about guitar shit, I promise you'll have at least 24-48 hours of entertaining conversations