[Courses] [Spineful Living, lesson 7: Assumptions Make....]

[Carla Schroder]

On Monday 28 May 2007 14:38, Kathryn Andersen wrote:
> On Sun, May 27, 2007 at 01:02:54PM -0700, Carla Schroder wrote:
> > So this week's assignment is what assumptions do you encounter, and what
> > do you do about them? Is it worth correcting people when they assume
> > wrong things about you, or is it akin to teaching pigs to sing? Does it
> > benefit you it ways other than you're not kicking yourself later for not
> > responding?
>
> Heh, I had a "wrong assumption" problem only yesterday.  I was buying a
> DVD recorder (it was on sale) and the salesman started interrogating me
> about my TV.  I asked him "Why?" and he said that if the TV didn't have
> certain inputs, I wouldn't be able to connect up the DVD recorder.  He
> was assuming that I was a dumb woman who couldn't deal with tech!  I
> said to him "No worries, I *have* connected up stuff like this before."
> and he dropped it. 

He listened and didn't continue to interrogate you. Sounds like a good outcome 
to me!

>
> Other assumptions people have made...
> - "You're a Christian, therefore you're a rednecked Fundamentalist bigot."
> That one can only be corrected by day-by-day interaction with me,
> it can't be corrected by an irritated "No, I'm not," because
> they won't believe such an assertion.  So it isn't even worth trying,
> most of the time.

Erp. (raises hand.) Not at you, but I live in the land of rednecked 
Fundamentalist bigots. A person gets a bit gun-shy! But that's no excuse.

> - "You know all about computers, can you fix my PC for me?"
> I've managed to train my family out of that by repeated "No, I don't use
> MS-Windows, I can't help you."
>

Another fine example of the effectiveness of Broken Record!

-- 
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Carla Schroder
Linux geek and random computer tamer
check out my Linux Cookbook! 
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxckbk/
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