Saturday, April 05, 2008

Saying what she meant

Last weekend I posted a link to alert the readers about new pictures having been posted on the useless photo site. Blithely I quipped that the first person to identify what kind of tree was featured in the accompanying picture would win a prize, and in the small print below I noted that prize would be a post praising the knowledge of the person in question.

Within a day I got a comment with an answer. The commenter said the tree was a white cherry tree. Not "I think maybe it's a white cherry tree," but a simple and confident "white cherry tree."

I left a joking comment in response lamenting the offer, and advising the winner to stay tuned; I hadn't promised it would be done by a particular time.

The commenter then wrote back that she was flummoxed that she was correct.

And here's the deal with that: I have no idea if "white cherry tree" is, in fact, accurate or not. Five minutes of research neither confirmed nor refuted it, but that's not the point. What it boils down to is this: The blahg does not strive to be accurate. Frankly, as long as it's not egregiously inaccurate, I'm perfectly comfortable with that. Hell, even egregious inaccuracy I can live with. If you are coming here for definitive, authoritative information about any subject other than whatever I have blathered on about, you are heavily advised to stop that.

Now, to be clear: It is entirely possible that on occasion any information noted here is accurate; I'm not striving to be inaccurate, mind you. However, I'm more than willing to give the benefit of the doubt to information I'm provided and to pass that along, with the caveat that I'm not claiming it as genuinely accurate but merely as seeming accurate, with the distinct possibility of being genuinely accurate.

That probably rings of Stephen Colbert's "truthiness"; while I'm not stealing the notion from him, I fully concede it is pretty much the same.

Accuracy is ultimately a truth arrived at by consensus. And until someone leaves a comment that leads me to believe the tree is other than a white cherry tree, then that is what I'll consider to be an approximation of accuracy.

Also, what's important on the blahg is the readership (such as it is) participating whenever it strikes their collective fancy (or even individual fancies). I could have just as easily noted than anyone leaving a comment that even attempts a guess will get mentioned in a post.

The "winner" not only participated, but did so in a convincing fashion. And thus she has demonstrated wisdom that is worth praising. It's not necessary to be the best; it's merely sufficient to be better than the other participants.

Granted, at present there are no other participants, but let's not dwell on that.

Thus, it is with sincere appreciation that I spotlight here that Jenji rocks.

I heartily recommend everyone go and check out her blog. I would do so even had she not answered theoretically accurately (I have added it to the links on my site already), but given her participation in my questionable contest, I recommend it doubly so.

(Hmm. It probably would have been more praising to have mentioned her up front, rather than after all that ruminating on the nature of participation. I'm really not good at this.)

~

(Note: By reading this you rock as well, just not as much as if you had replied to that post.)

2 comments:

  1. Doug.

    Well, I truly love and appreciate the shout out, yet I must confess that the following verbal vomit stems from a visit to the shrink this past week, wherein she insisted that I attempt to abandon my wavering, misanthropic attitude and instead have a bit more confidence in the judgments of those around me, as I may be surprised as to how many individuals will indeed interpret my intentions accurately—if only I give them the chance to do so. You know, $150/hour psychobabble, yet a relevant point just the same.

    You should first know that I was mortified when presented with the "most arrogant" award at my 8th grade dinner banquet and have since often felt the need to apply a self-depreciating tone to some of my confident confirmations, especially over such a mysterious medium, wherein one's inflection can easily be lost. No, I’m not arrogant; in fact I’m quite shy, which is often misinterpreted for arrogance, which can frankly be twice as devastating to deal with in the end.

    So, Doug…I must confess that the day after I left that comment I wondered whether it might come off as arrogant, when in fact it was meant to have an acerbic humor. After reading your praise post, I realized that you did indeed get my inflection and humor, so I apologize for not having more confidence in your ability to sift and sort through those who may or may not be of a true, arrogant asshole strain. You should know that my hesitation stems only from my deep respect for you and our bloggerworld camaraderie.

    So I submit, don’t bother trying to look the tree up, as it is indeed a white cherry tree. I say this with 99.9% confidence, as I do not have the advantage of a tactile inspection, so I will instead concur “jenji rocks!”

    So take that 8th grade wenches, Doug says that I rock, which means more than you petty wankers will ever know!

    …and yes, my shrink earns every single penny.

    jenji

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  2. If one is to have a misanthropic attitude (which, in and of itself, is entirely justifiable), I do agree with the shrink that one should not vacillate about it; misanthropy is best facilitated through a confident belief that humanity sucks.

    I am utterly flummoxed by the notion of an 8th grade banquet having a "most arrogant" award. (However, now that I think of it, if I were a nefarious psychiatrist, it would be an ingenious way of drumming up business down the road.) My public system education seems not so bad all of a sudden.

    I'm not sure that I can undo years of self-esteem-damaging life experiences with one blahg post (and if so, man, I am wasting my talents), but I will note that at no point did the comment strike me as even the slightest bit arrogant. I'm not just saying that; with as much sincerity as is humanly possible I swear the notion never even so much as passed over the same continent as my reaction (which was: Hey, someone replied! And she seems to know! Score!).

    I have figured out that any person who thinks I'm being an arrogant asshole (which, I'm led to believe has occurred) when I am quite certain that I have not been an arrogant asshole (as there are times when I have been, so I know the difference) is simply revealing his/her insecurity. And while it is acceptable to admit insecurity, it's only acceptable when admitted, not when it comes in the form of unrealized transference. (My psychological terms may be inaccurate; I had Psych 100 about 20 years ago.) Anyway, I try to not let it get to me.

    I recommend that highly. I imagine the $150/hour shrink has touched on that as well. At least, I hope so, for that kind of money.

    Some of the time it even works.

    ($150 an hour. Man, I should have gone farther than Psych 100.)

    Thanks again.

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So, what do you think?