I don’t suffer fools gladly
 

So my leadership coach (venture cap guys like the execs in their portfolio companies to work with a leadership coach) identified right away that I have a short fuse for idiots...

I know that I have this weakness and I struggle with it.

What are your thoughts on dealing with dummies?

Zero tolerance for stupidity

Einstein opined, "the difference between genius and idiots is that genius has limits."

Ignore the dummies.

That will be $400.

What if the dummkopf is your boss?

Personally, when I hear the phrase "I don't suffer fools" it makes me not want to associate with the person stating that. The 'Fool Sufferer' is the one who has a lot to learn, completely unrelated to the learning required of the Fool. We all 'suffer' many people in life. Best option IMO is keep an open mind and try on many pairs of shoes.

I don’t either. My boss regularly reminds me that you catch more flies with honey so bottle up the vinegar....


Of course occasionally she will tell me it’s time to bust out the vinegar and teach the fools a lesson... so it’s a good balance.

I found working front line at a call center helped. I can sit through someone asking dumb questions for quite a while now and keep my cool. :D

That is one way not to have to get along with people. High expectations are premeditated resentments. Holding resentments is like drinking poison and expecting other people to die.

It sounds like you operate at such a high level that youy put a lot of stress on yourself, which you then deal with by taking it out on others who are not willing to operate at such a high level because of the toll on their humanity.

I used to be the best, and very hard to live with. Now I look at everything I do as if it were a service to humanity. In other words, I do the things I do to improve the quality of the lives of the people I work for and with. That would ideally include myself. People enjoy a better quality of life because of the things I produce, and ideally because of the way I behave.

A lot of people use anger as the fuel to do things that they really don't enjoy doing anymore, and they cause a lot of suffering among the people who surround them. Their bosses appreciate them like a really good tool. No one else likes them, and it becomes really easy for this to seep into the non work part of their life.

It is OK to be arrogant as long as you are responsible around it. It shouldn't be an excuse to go off on people to take out your frustrations.

It's a slippery slope. If you beat a dog with a whip, you may get him to obey, but you will never get loyalty.

And, the career coach requirement is telling. We have one member of our exec staff with a career coach...for good reason. She doesn’t suffer fools well either...what she doesn’t realize is...she’s one of them.

Isn't that generally the case ? :D Between my wife and I we spent 56 years working for the nations largest defense contractor in three different facilities on the East coast . I can honestly say we probably only interacted with 4 - 5 REAL leaders the rest were a$$ kissing back stabbing clueless dolts :( . These a$$hats expected everyone to " think outside the box ' when in reality they could barely tie their shoes ! In that scenario all you can do is hold yourself to a higher standard and do the best you can in the environment you have to work within . It is really scary how big business works .......... SO MUCH waste and minimal productivity but we had lots of meetings :D . We are so glad to have retired from the rat race .

I am the (only) prototype engineer for a large automotive parts manufacturer. I have to deal all the time with demanding design engineers, and production capabilities, on short lead times that have really picky clients. You cannot imagine the the amount of trial/error involved in developing suspension components, and the data that needs to be crunched to get the right results from our test lab. Add to this, some Japanese perfectionism, and it makes for numerous renditions of the same parts with minute differences that I am sure, no one in the real world will ever notice, or feel the difference.

I have started coming in early to potentially get out early, to avoid the late afternoon brain storming sessions that can last well into the evening regardless of previous plans. The good news is, that my current boss is my age, and is really a calm, reasoned guy who understands my plight. I am also immune to being in most meetings, and can just quietly (most of the time) work on something by myself in my huge well equipped shop....the interruptions start to mount as the day goes by however.

I am going to enjoy retirement (hopefully in 6-8 years) greatly, with all sorts of "ME" projects in my man cave shop.

Eff-em SmileWavy

I'm involved in a new business. Myself and my two partners are experts in our fields, and we all have very high levels of work commitment. We are very often dealing with others as we go about business, that are not at this level, and it is frustrating.

“Zero tolerance” for something isn’t a redeeming quality IMO. Balance works better. At some point we will all be the fool.

"For years, I was smart.
I recommend pleasant.
You may quote me."
-Elwood P. Dowd

Real idiots are fine by me, it’s the idiots that think they’re brilliant that bug me.

I like to say that I’m smart enough to know I’m not smart enough!

I don't mind idiots as long as I don't have to pay them or take advice from them.







Or they're stopped behind me with flashing lights on the roof.





.

Have learned "they" are going to do what they want anyway, so just do what I'm told and practice discretion. Especially if I know of, or find a better solution to what is going on. "They" don't want to hear it.

Kill all others

I might just use the phrase "I don't suffer fools" for the first time in my life.

Every exec within the portfolio companies works with a coach, not just me as I stated in my original post.

:rolleyes:

tailor your presentation to your audience, task others with work they can actually accomplish and knit the whole operation together to get the optimum result possible with the allotted resources.

You are only as good as your last at bat, so focus on your failings so as to be a better leader to those who are depending on you to lead them.

Lose the "I am surrounded by idiots" attitude. Those people actually know you think that and the good ones will shake the dust of your arrogance from their feet.

I’ve had to deal with fools at all levels, as subordinates, superiors, and people I just have to deal with because there is no one else. I handle them all differently. It’s a skill.

To help me cope with situations as the OP's, I sometimes remind myself of this quote:

"The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity."

Occasionally it works.

Cheers
JB

100% true, the volume of hydrogen is limited and will someday be exhausted. The laws of entropy. The supply of stupidity is inexhaustible, and self renewing.

I think you are high tech....extremely so? I am not a people person, not a leader (of people), nor a follower....

I had a few "great leaders" during my extremely high tech, leading/bleeding edge, corporate career at IBM, two mega-banks and another VERY high tech, international corporation....

Nary a manager (above me at any level) had a clue about what I did, I didn't care...they came and went like sagebrush. The good/great ones left me alone...kept me happy, and I them :)

I have nothing to offer you...I sucked at that game, had a great corporate career, got tired of corporate america....retired at 48....I just had had enough....I suffer no more ;)

Yeah....I'm a fool too :)

Best of luck Billy!

I always thought the phrase was



I don't suffer fools lightly

I'll gladly suffer fools all day long. I will not suffer ass holes. The former have no idea they are, and cannot help it. They get all of the patience I can muster. The latter have made a choice. There seems to be a lot of overlap - the greater the latter usually means a healthy dose of the former. I've found that most who "will not suffer" the former are, almost without fail, one of these hybrids.

It may not be funny or entertaining, but I nominate this for post of the year.

I get frustrated and vent about people doing silly things. I try to do it mostly in a limited audience because it’s just venting. I know that I do things that some would find silly/stupid at times. We all do whether it’s frequent or occasional. Some people are just more limited in a certain dept than others. Just like some folks are better looking and some folks are natural athletes, some folks are smarter. There is also the opposite end of the spectrum, and there’s no amount of desire or work or practice that’s going to radically improve the situation.

As a couple of others have stated or alluded to, the ones that are easy to deal with are the folks that realize that they aren’t the smartest. It’s easy to be patient with them. The folks that think they are arrogant in the absence of ability, those are the folks that are the hardest to deal with.

I have found and try to remind myself that no matter how smart you think you are, there will always be someone smarter, and if you pay attention, you should be able to learn something from everyone (even the idiots). Whether they are frustrating or not, it’s best to either deal with them civilly or if you don’t have to, then let it go, and don’t deal with them since getting yourself worked up won’t do you any good and having to deal with someone who feels superior and is an azz won’t do them any good.

I suspect I'd get along just fine with you, and frankly everyone here....but I "can" be one. I don't like it....but if the wrong button is pushed at the wrong time :(. And I'm a fool too...can ya tolerate a LITTLE of both ;)?

We are all capable of a certain measure of both. I've been a foolish ass hole on more occasions than I can remember. Worst part is, some of it has been recorded for posterity. :eek:

Ignorant means a person just doesn't know any better.
Stupid means they can't or won't learn.

I can just imagine someone (with no background or experience) making decisions about ballistics, etc. while you observe silently ;).

My corporate experiences have left me a bit jaded however...3 were managed into oblivion after I jumped ship...Titanic Captians :(.

It can be either or, both seem to be correct. But it's normally used to describe other people, not oneself IMO