H.H. Smart author => stupid reader
All,
happy to read Grey gives Jocko the credit on-list i gave him in private email, and i want to repeat my apology to Jocko on-list. I have included him in complaints about rude manners i should have pointed at H.H, alone.
*** Rant mode on ***
As a German engineer who wants to learn and grow, i have learned to loathe and avoid German engineer authors because they manage
1st
to appear utterly smart and knowing and
2nd
to make the reader feel like knowing nothing and hardly able to count to ten.
Many sublte techniques to achieve the 2nd can be observed but the main ones are:
* omitting information vital for the reader to get a complete picture,
* spitting out more knowledge per time unit than the reader can handle,
* belittling, humbling.
For the record, there exist a few exceptions. I know it, i have some of them on my shelf. But 90% of my of my engineering books are from American authors who strive to make the reader knowing and understanding. I like that. I woldn't have survived math courses, particularly differential equations, without a certain American book which even was hard to read for me back then, my command of the language not being the one i have today. Even with the language barrier built-in, it was enlightening!
Ok, back to topic, i experienced H.H. so far as the worst imaginable example of the German engineer author attitude described above.
Some forum members have praised H.H.s deep and solid knowledge. Can be. But i am not convinced. Spitting out more (incomplete) knowledge per time time unit than the reader can handle is one thing. Helping together to get a result quite another. Nevertheless the one or the other forum member has managed to get his thing working with (or should i say in spite of, mean and biased me!! tutut

) H.H.s help.
As a fairly experienced design engineer (with no flawed result so far and proud of it) i often faced bullying attitude from fellow engineers appearing utterly smart while belittling others all the time. Were they really that smart ??
It eventually became apparent to me that their abrasiveness made it impossible for me to evaluate how deep and solid their knowledge really was and how the progress of their share of work was. In almost every case it became apparent later on that the particular engineer's part of work was seriously flawed, sometimes because of basic mistakes, sometimes because of being arrogant and misjudgings problems and always because of seriously flawed communication with other team members.
OTOH, those guys with open communcation manners and friendly, happy, "we are a team" attitude and "c'mon, let's solve it" attitude could never be observed bullying and belittling. And could never be observed to deliver flawed results. It was a pure joy to work with them and to learn from them.
*** Rant mode off ***
Grey,
second your points 3 to 7,
8: i am afraid i have to admit i join the "Ding, dong, the witch is dead..." crowd
9: having read your Aleph X thread and H.H.s insidious reponses when you called him to order, I bow in respect to you that you find such mild words. I can't.