Do you know dumb people who pretend they're smart?

[Rick Lee]

This is a pet peeve of mine. A co-worker, who went to part-time status to get her master's at Columbia (must be smart, right?) is always throwing huge SAT words around and using horrible spelling, grammar and punctuation in company emails. She's the kind of person who subscribes to Atlantic Monthly or The New Yorker, not to read them, but to have them on her coffee table. When my boss asked us on email for some history on an account, her reply began "My conjecture is.....". She constantly uses words that clearly demonstrate she either has no idea what they mean or how they are correctly spelled or both, like "per sais." She uses "it's" when "its" is called for, "less" when "fewer" is called for and "amount of" instead of "number of". Man, when I was in prep school, any one of my English teachers would have rapped my knuckles for this stuff. It just leaps off the computer screen and screams "Idiot" to the reader. And how do you guys like someone who ends every spoken sentence with "et cetera"? Arrrgghhhh!!!

My fiance's first language is not English. She's always asking me to proof this or that email or phrase something orally for her. I constantly tell her she will sound intelligent if she uses simple words that get to the point and with correct grammar. Thrift and brevity, man! No need to try to impress people. They will be impressed by your ability to get your point across as concisely as possible. I guess I inherited this from my old man whose hobby is writing letters to major publications to point out their own poor writing. He even got a letter back from the NYT times once, apologizing and saying he was indeed correct.

[rammstein]

Your dad is my new hero! That's awesome.

[legion]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

I constantly tell her she will sound intelligent if she uses simple words that get to the point and with correct grammar.

Yep, the most intelligent people I know are the ones that can express a complex idea concisely and with plain words. I have strived towards this goal. I used to get in trouble in high school for writing papers that were too short as assignments often had minimum lengths. (I ran out of things to say and didn't believe in filler.) In college, assignments often had maximum lengths. I even had one professor say: "If you can't explain this in two pages, I don't want to read it." I got high marks in college.

On the other hand, I find that the more words a person uses, the less they have to say...

[sammyg2]

Brevity?

[David]

My wife does that and it drives me crazy!!! She's obviously trying to sound smart, but if I have to say, "get to the f'n point" one more time, I think I'm going to lose it. She has a lot of good traits, but it's easy to forget those in fit of rage.

We have a manager (now a director) at work that's known for this. A few years ago he stood up in a meeting and went on for 20 minutes about people getting up in meetings and rambling on about nothing. I was beyond speachless.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

Brevity?

Hey, I get a pass because I never claimed to be smart and don't much care if people think I am or not. The problem is with folks who really do care about that stuff.

[MRM]

Rick, on this point we agree completely.

[rammstein]

Originally Posted by 125shifter

We have a manager (now a director) at work that's known for this. A few years ago he stood up in a meeting and went on for 20 minutes about people getting up in meetings and rambling on about nothing. I was beyond speachless.

The reason I cannot work in a big corporate job has just been illustrated perfectly.

[Shawn 357]

There are quite a few of those people on this board.

[Rick Lee]

Oh, and my boss uses the word "key" to describe everything in his emails. Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose? If everything is key, then nothing really is.....or something like that.

And this co-worker of mine has never been outside of the US, but tries to put on this world traveler act too. She wanted to go to Prague for her vacation last year because she heard it was the "in" place to go that year and asked me about, as I have been there. I asked her if she knew anything about how/where the 30 Years War began, had ever heard of Lidice or Reinhard Heydrich, Hradcy Castle, Alexandr Dubcek, etc. Nope. She just heard it was the place to go. Alas, other things came up and she couldn't go.

[sammyg2]

I think you misunderstood. What I meant to say was, I dunno what brevity means

[gassy]

Arrrgghhhh!!!

That is spelled incorrectly. Only three "h's" is correct.

[Rot 911]

People that return to college to get any degree seem to get caught up with the whole "I'm getting smarter" trip and just want everyone to know about it.

[legion]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

Oh, and my boss uses the word "key" to describe everything in his emails. Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose? If everything is key, then nothing really is.....or something like that.

My previous manager liked to end sentences with "if you will". A phrase only to be used when constructing an awkward analogy, IYW.

[Hendog]

"Do you know dumb people who pretend they're smart?"

No, I only hang around wit smart peeple

[tcar]

I think you misunderstood. What I meant to say was, I dunno what brevity means

Briefly, it means concise.

[Seahawk]

I fine your animosity towards this woman illuminating, perhaps a revolution towards your own inadequacies, per se, a cloak of shame, which I feel is key.

I base my conjecture both a priori and posteriori. Your pedestrian demeanor and plebeian postulates reveal....

Hey, some schmuck had to do it.

[legion]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

I fine your animosity towards this woman illuminating, perhaps a revolution towards your own inadequacies, per se, a cloak of shame, which I feel is key.

I base my conjecture both a priori and posteriori. Your pedestrian demeanor and plebeian postulates reveal....

Are you channeling Superman?

[Jeff Higgins]

There's one on the God thread right now. I was quite surprised to learn Vizzini is French...

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by legion

Are you channeling Superman?

Indubitably.