Rhetorical questions.
I hate those.
T. William (Bill) Allen, S.E.
ALLEN DESIGNS
Consulting Structural Engineers
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christopher Wright [mailto:chrisw@skypoint.com]
> Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 2:00 PM
> To: seaint@seaint.org
> Subject: Re: Dumb Question
>
>
> On Jun 15, 2007, at 2:08 PM, Bill Cain wrote:
>
> > Regarding your subject line, a colleague of mine frequently says:
> > "the only dumb question is the one that doesn't get asked!" I
> > strongly agree.
> I'll quibble with this. I've heard plenty of dumb questions. Mostly
> they can be categorized as questions which allow more than one
> correct answer (What kind of panda eats shoots and leaves?) and asked
> by someone who doesn't understand enough to sort out which answer is
> useful. Another category of dumb question is one that isn't
> researched well enough to allow the questioner to distinguish a wrong
> or incomplete answer from a correct answer. (Can I weld stainless
> steel?) There's a really good web site 'How to ask questions the
> Smart Way <http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html> that
> explains how not to ask dumb questions.
>
> There's actually a third type of dumb question--sharpshooting.
> Questions which attempt to score points on a speaker wastes
> everyone's time and may get the questioner a public verbal smack in
> the mouth when the speaker knows his stuff.
>
> Christopher Wright P.E. |"They couldn't hit an elephant at
> chrisw@skypoint.com | this distance" (last words of Gen.
> .......................................| John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania
> 1864)
> http://www.skypoint.com/~chrisw/
>
>
>
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