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Stupid questions.

Olulabelle

09:42 / 04.03.04

Is there such a thing as a 'stupid' question? Or is asking a question in itself a sign of intelligence?

Is this a stupid question?

?

---

09:57 / 04.03.04

What time is it?

Olulabelle

10:01 / 04.03.04

That's not a stupid question if you can't tell the time or if you actually don't know because you can't see a clock. Or in fact since you've asked it on Barbelith, given the time weirdness we have.

Sax

10:09 / 04.03.04

"Are you all right?" is a stupid question because you only ever ask it of people who are patently not.

illmatic

10:17 / 04.03.04

I think you can play "low-status" and ask questions to which you already know the answer to, or could find the answer to quite easily. Presumably to get some kind of reassurance, to cover a lack of confidence, to look busy. (This happens a lot at work).

Ariadne

10:22 / 04.03.04

Sax: "Are you all right?" is a stupid question because you only ever ask it of people who are patently not.

Oh, to live up north. Here in London I am regularly, daily, confused by people meeting me in the corridor and asking "You awwight?" I still can't shake off the need to actually answer them, when they haven't waited for an answer and are half way down the building by the time I say "yeah, thanks, I'm.. oh .. I see."

What IS the right response to "You awwight?"? Illmatic, sleazenation, help me out here?

Smoothly

10:27 / 04.03.04

You just parrot it back at them, Ariadne. It's the white-bread equivalent of 'How do you do?'

Ariadne

10:30 / 04.03.04

I see... I'll try that. It won't sound right in a Scottish accent though, will it?

Saveloy

10:32 / 04.03.04

Yes. The correct formal answer is "yeah, awight, mate. Seeya later". The correct informal answer is: "Awwight," said with a chuckle in the voice. The chuckle of hurriment.

Sax

10:32 / 04.03.04

Just say: "Sweet as a nut, mate. Luvverly."

Then when they've gone mouth a huge silent "fuck off" at their backs.

Ariadne

10:36 / 04.03.04

Sax, play nice!

This is interesting actually - must watch other people when they do this. I don't think I'll have the courage to do it myself - I'll just have to continue nodding and smiling and being a clumsy foreigner.

Smoothly

10:38 / 04.03.04

Although bear in mind that in some circumsatnces the correct response will be 'No, Mr. Barrymore. Not under any circumstances'.

It occurs to me that the most stupid questions are the ones where there can only be one answer. Like 'Are you lying to me?', 'Does this make me look fat?'.
Yet people still ask.

Ariadne

10:50 / 04.03.04

"Do you fancy a pint?" Stupid question.

Ariadne

10:55 / 04.03.04

Have I taken this thread entirely off track? Stupid question.

Sorry olulabelle, to get back to what you were asking - I don't think there are stupid questions, really: it's better to ask than to muddle along, trying to work out what's going on.

40%

10:55 / 04.03.04

Stupid questions, if there are such things, ignore obvious evidence which would make the question redundant. Most of my stupid questions are down to a lack of observational skills. I can look around the kitchen for a minute for something and ask someone where it is, and they'll point it out right in front of me.

But then there are also the works questions with only one possible answer. "What should I do with this?", "What is this for?", "What do you do when this happens". But that probably is to do with the confidence thing.

illmatic

10:59 / 04.03.04

You could go for "Yeah mate, yeah mate, I'm awwight, you awwight, geez?" or in the negative" "nah, that fuckin' *insert whatever* is doing me 'ead in, nahwotimean" if you really want to sound like a native.

Sax

11:17 / 04.03.04

If I worked at Ariadne's office I'd say: "Awwight, tweacle?"

Then slap her arse.

Then run away.

The Apple-Picker

11:22 / 04.03.04

I don't know if I should call them stupid questions, but they certainly did drive me batty: years ago in my first Italian class, there was this girl who always asked questions that had been very very very well-covered in the material or in lectures. I guess I do think that they were stupid questions, and I think that because they were extremely simple questions that she could have answered herself by looking at the textbook or paying attention in class and just not being so lazy. She dragged the whole class to her lazy pace in a class that was already moving too slow.

And she was always kicking at the back of my chair!

Stupid stupid questioning kicker.

Maybe it's redundant to write that I had a very intense and perhaps disproportionate dislike for this girl.

Regrettable Juvenilia

11:23 / 04.03.04

Most stupid questions aren't information seeking, but rhetorical.

"When will you all recognise my genius?"

"Why does the girl I am stalking not love me?"

"What will it take for depressing unlistenable noise to get to number one in the charts?"

Sax

11:30 / 04.03.04

The girl you are stalking does love you, Fly. Take heed of one who knows.

Regrettable Juvenilia

11:32 / 04.03.04

"How much does Sax deserve to suffer for thinking those questions could ever be asked by me?"

Bear

11:36 / 04.03.04

there was this girl who always asked questions that had been very very very well-covered in the material or in lectures

There's a guy at work like that, every meeting without fail he'll ask questions about something that's been said a couple of minutes before... Dude I hate meeting shut the fuck up so we can get out of here....

They say "Alright?" in Scotland don't they? what you on Ariadne?

5% nation

11:44 / 04.03.04

I hate that "Are you all right?" question. Yet I've found that when someone is just about to break down crying on me, if I DON'T say it, I've somehow failed. As stupid as it is it becomes expected.

I cough a lot (the lung AIDS you know) and if I get asked "Are you all right?" I usually say, "Oh yeah, I'm just practicing." Making fun of the question relieves my boredom (you can't imagine how often I get asked) and then usually I make a friend because they start laughing and talking to me. Uh.

Cat Chant

11:48 / 04.03.04

There are questions which aren't stupid in themselves but which, in order to make sense, need a level of explanation that the questioner can't provide, which is frustrating. Eg when one of my first years asks "So is Eve Sedgwick saying that there's no difference between homosexuality and homosociality?" and I'm staring at the text going "This is a twenty-page essay about the differences between homosexuality and homosociality. Can you explain to me where you got the idea she's saying there's no difference?" And often they can't, which means I can't explain to them why I think the answer to the original question is "No".

Sax

11:48 / 04.03.04

Sorry, Fly. It was the "unlistenable noise" one that threw me.

Sax

16:46 / 04.03.04

And I'm not stalking anyone, either.

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