Re: Pre-contact diseases anyone???

Paul J. Gans (gans@scholar.chem.nyu.edu)
7 Aug 1995 02:05:48 GMT

Stella Nemeth (S.NEMETH@IX.NETCOM.COM) wrote:

[deletions]

: I doubt the numbers are correct because they seem to involve circular
: reasoning. I also believe that adding up the death rates from
: multiple waves of epidemics over a 200 year period results in
: meaningless numbers, even if the numbers were correct.

: As a result, I am considered to be one of the loonies on this
: conference. You've just been induced into the loonie fringe too.

: Welcome! Both of us, and Dean Snow, seem to be in good company. <g>

Yes, arguments sometimes get heated here. But I've not considered
you a looney at all. It is actually impossible to get a good handle
on a person through their postings. But the internal (and doubtless
fully incorrect) vision I have of you is of an intelligent and
widey read person who sometimes gets in over her head.

It is certain that *I* have been in over my head on a number of
occasions, both here and elsewhere on the net.

The "over the head" syndrome occurs because, no matter how well-
read one is, one never knows when a real, honest-to-gosh expert
is going to drop in and (hopefully gently) correct you. Most
all of us here on the net suffer from the "bright child"
syndrome. We are all too willing to show off what we think
we know, possibly because we were praised for such behavior
when young.

The cure, in my opinion, is to admit wrongness when wrong,
admit doubt when doubtful, and to back off when the
experts get involved.

You've indulged (in my opinion) in enthusiastic defense
of your point of view. So have I. So have one or two
others. :-) You have NOT refused to learn things, nor
have you defended positions once they have been convincingly
refuted. You have, once or twice, hurt folks feelings,
especially when those folks felt that they were under
unwarranted attack. But again, many of us have done that
too. And it is not behavior that you've repeated.

That's my opinion, for what it's worth.

---- Paul J. Gans [gans@scholar.chem.nyu.edu]