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Have you ever been willfully ignorant?

Have you ever been willfully ignorant?

  • Total voters
    19
OhIsee.Then said:
If the problem is actually identical. Often problems that are thought to be identical, because they share several high level issues, but they are not in detail; then a solution that worked before may not work in the new application or vice versa.
Here is one from engineering: Standard solution "Work with convention when cooling an electronics rack with fans, i.e. blow from bottom to top." Wrong! If a piece of printer paper falls to the floor and slides over to my cabinet design it gets sucked up blocking the air intake, cooling failure. But some people would just say its the papers fault.
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But you could keep trying to blow from bottom to top, hoping for a different result. This sometimes happens when people misdiagnose a problem and think it is different this time when it really isn't. After all, some people still believe in Keynesian economics.
 
ThePlayDrive said:
So I'll take this as a yes...
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Yes. We've all done this. However, why would one ever act so dumb as to seem lost in a fog of cluelessness?
 
I don't think so...


I like to think that I question everything - but by that very measure, I have to question whether I question everything...


:mrgreen:
 
I don't remember a time but it's certainly possible in the distant past. I tend to research subjects that I'm unfamiliar with, assuming I want to get involved at all. I also have the ability to step back from what I believe in an attempt to find out what's actually true, something I see far too seldom around here. For too many, adopting a position that they are emotionally attached to, whether it's factually correct or not, is a way of life.

That's sad.
 
MaggieD said:
....
In my real life, I often play dumb. I get a lot more done that way as a blonde. ;)
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Sorry you have to play dumb. I've had a lot of work experiences w/ women. A comment on women: There were two very expert women engineers that I'd have come to my meetings if things were going to be contentious. Even if we didn't agree I'd personally visit them to insure their attendance. I found that one or two expert women in a meeting sure correct the behavior of testosterone charged men. We could actually get rational decisions reached. So, only play dumb when you have to.
 
OhIsee.Then said:
Sorry you have to play dumb. I've had a lot of work experiences w/ women. A comment on women: There were two very expert women engineers that I'd have come to my meetings if things were going to be contentious. Even if we didn't agree I'd personally visit them to insure their attendance. I found that one or two expert women in a meeting sure correct the behavior of testosterone charged men. We could actually get rational decisions reached. So, only play dumb when you have to.
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Oh, don't be sorry. But thank you. It's a technique, not a mindset. Not having all the answers is a good way to find out what people are thinking . . . to get them on your side. In business? Very different story. I've never felt a glass ceiling in my life.
 
Wake said:
... However, why would one ever act so dumb as to seem lost in a fog of cluelessness?
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For instance, because it's not the correct time yet to reveal your knowledge. Often done w/ children, esp. when you know what is going to happen. Done with peers to. There were several times in the USAF where I reviled my knowledge where I should have played dumb and got into serious trouble for it, especially when it ended up showing how stupid someone in authority was.
 
Just a note: Willfully ignorant shares nothing with playing dumb. Playing dumb successfully requires knowledge and applied technique.
 
OhIsee.Then said:
Just a note: Willfully ignorant shares nothing with playing dumb. Playing dumb successfully requires knowledge and applied technique.
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Meh, they have overlap although they can both mean separate things.
 
ThePlayDrive said:
Yes, it does.
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By that definition, I use willful ignorance as a tool -- there are times when either we think we know what someone else believes, or someone else hasn't thought their beliefs out very far. In either case, pretending to know nothing and asking for the Reader's Digest version is an excellent way of either making sure what we think is what we know, or of getting the other party to give their beliefs additional thought.
 
Originally Posted by TacticalEvilDan
Does your definition of "willfully ignorant" essentially mean "playing dumb?"
Yes, it does.
TacticalEvilDan said:
By that definition, I use willful ignorance as a tool -- there are times when either we think we know what someone else believes, or someone else hasn't thought their beliefs out very far. In either case, pretending to know nothing and asking for the Reader's Digest version is an excellent way of either making sure what we think is what we know, or of getting the other party to give their beliefs additional thought.
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No. What you describing is just playing dumb. Willful Ignorance is the choice to be not fully informed about the position you have taken. This can just be with yourself. You can be happy with the belief you have and don't want to risk upsetting it.
Willful Ignorance is believing 2 + 2 = 5 (base 10).
Just dumb or ignorant (There is essential equiviolance here.) is: What is 2 plus 2?
Playing dumb is: What is 2 plus 2? While knowing the answer.
Knowledge is knowing 2 + 2 is 4.
 
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2 + 2 = 4.

I can has willfull smarts
 
If I say "yes" but limit it to "I am being willfully ignorant in identifying that I am being willfully ignorant in answering this question in the affirmative", did I just create a paradox that will take down the entire internet?
 
CaptainCourtesy said:
If I say "yes" but limit it to "I am being willfully ignorant in identifying that I am being willfully ignorant in answering this question in the affirmative", did I just create a paradox that will take down the entire internet?
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Don't do that... I had a seizure.
 
MKULTRABOY said:
Don't do that... I had a seizure.
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It's only fair...everyone else has been having mild seizures every time they see your signature picture.
 
Yeah. But I've been politically active since my early teens. I don't indulge willful ignorance these days, and I'm generally capable of admitting when I'm wrong. I have before on DP. It's not always easy on the ego, but being willfully ignorant is infinitely worse. You know you're doing it, and usually, so do they. You're not getting away with anything. And you just make yourself look stupid and cheapen your own integrity by doing so.

I'll usually own up to my mistakes. If it's really bad, after my admission I may leave the thread, feeling I've sort of disqualified myself from debating the issue further for the time being.
 
Willful ignorance (i.e. intentionally ignoring facts because acknowledging them would force you to change your position) is one of the worst impulses for a person to indulge. Not the worst, mind you...but it's in the top five, I would say. Probably worse than greed.
 
i willfully ignorant in any information that i dont find profitable on knowing. for example i dont see a point in learning to cook well as my wife enjoys that household duty.

Sent from my YP-G1 using Tapatalk. My YP-G1 is a very nice device that hardly ever explodes or shoots jets of burning acid at my face. Samsung has done a good job in that respect in building it. However one has to consider hamsters in regard to android as cyborg hamsters are very cool. Imagine how fast an Android hamster could run in their exercise wheel for example.
 
MKULTRABOY said:
I made a pact with satan to never deceive myself or participate in willful ignorance when I was a child.
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Never try to deceive yourself.

It is the stupidest thing a person can do.
 
Have I ever chosen to be ignorant? For more than half of my life I chose to believe racism isn't a real problem in America. If you're asking If I've ever chosen to feign ignorance to Troll a political forum, then no, although I have feigned at misunderstanding posts to Troll a political forum before.
 
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