Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
"It's already been done."
I just do not understand the mindset that some people have.
OK, let me explain. Monday I posted an excerpt about our upcoming "Cylinder Gap" tests to several of the gun forums I frequent, because I thought it would be of interest to some people who hang out at such places. And, for the most part, that proved to be correct.
But one place I got a response from one guy who said "it's already been done". See, he had done these sorts of tests using one brand of revolver which allows you to adjust the cylinder gap, in both a smaller and a larger caliber than the .38/.357 we're testing. And the difference wasn't that big a deal. Oh, he had the data somewhere, but he didn't have it readily available. There was no real reason for us to conduct the tests.
OK, so here's a guy who tested something different than we did (different calibers, and I guess only one barrel length in each). And he never published the data, though he says he'll dig it up. Nor did he document the process he used.
Doesn't sound to me like "it's already been done."
Now, I don't mean to single this guy out, and if you go looking for the post don't mangle him for his comment. Well, not too badly, anyway. Because I've run into this kind of mindset a lot in regards to the BBTI project, both in posts I've seen online in various places and in private emails I've received. People who think that just because they have done something a bit similar, and drawn their own conclusions, that therefore there is no value in what we've done or are planning to do. It's like they resent the very idea that someone else might do more than they did, either in scope or in results. And so they try and either claim that they had the idea for the project first, or did some part of it first/better, or just try and belittle the results.
This sort of thing happens all the time, not just regarding the BBTI project. You see it with people grousing about invention and innovation, about movies and books, about blog posts or government or relationships. They seem to think that just the idea is what matters, not any effort or final product to bring that idea into reality.
Thomas Edison famously said that "Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration." A related quote from him perhaps sums up my attitude even better:
I am much less interested in what is called God's word than in God's deeds. All bibles are man-made.
Yeah, that's it.
Jim Downey
(Cross posted to my blog and BBTI blog.)
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Ideas Evolve by Being Thought About by Usn's
Not many good ideas exist that wouldn't provide even greater usefulness if they were more widely discussed and examined.
Except, maybe, Bag Balm. I don't think that can be improved.
;^)
Dismissive attitudes
I despise that sort of dismissive attitude. Aside from all the practical aspects that you pointed out, the "it's been done" attitude just squelches curiosity and inquiry for its own sake. Sure, it may have been done, but not by me. The particular question has not challenged my brain or my decision to work out a problem and discover a path that may lead to another conclusion. Or it may lead to the same conclusion, that doesn't really matter. What's important is that the inquiry is an exercise of the brains of those people working on it, and that is a benefit in itself, whether it leads to a new conclusion or not. Other people have read "Flashman and the Redskins," but that doesn't prevent me from reading it today.
Idiots.
Frank Moorman, skeptic
"what is the point of giving persons Freedom of Speech... if you then say they must not utilize same? And is not the Power of Speech the greatest Power of all? Then surely it must be exercised to the full." --Salman Rushdie
Ahh.. So you the one who's
Ahh.. So you the one who's been buying all the ammo!...