People who "try" to impress you with their "knowledge" (member, conversation)
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....You get the idea. I mean, this is not a conversation. And a lot of the time it might be inaccurate. Talking to someone like this, is just draining. And when they initiate a conversation with a question, it's only to spout out more of this "impressiveness".
Okay, anybody else know a person like this. Please share.
In the past ten years or so, I've only known one person who was like this. Whatever you mentioned, he immediately knew more and corrected you. He was invariably wrong...that was the worst part, he didn't have clue one about what he was declaiming about, and often was attempting to apply some very broad generality to a very specific situation where it was not applicable. But he was certain that he was right, and easily took very strong offense if his "facts" were questioned.
He was compulsive about. And I never understood his need to do it, because he had led what I would have thought was a fascinating life in central and western Africa for many years. If he had talked about this as much as he played I-know-everything he would have been a fascinating person.
In the course of about two and a half years he became alienated from everyone he had met here - because everyone who knew him at one point or another just had to draw a line and say, "Enough BS!"
I just recently learned that he sold his condo and returned to the U.S. And I know from what he said that he had no close friends there...I would guess for the same reason.
(disclaimer, City Data puts these threads up at the bottom of threads, obviously to get me to read them. Sometimes I don't notice they are really old and dead threads, and I compose a reply, before I realize it's a fossilized discussion. Sometimes I still post the response, because I am annoyed about it all)
Quote:
Originally Posted by dfour
Do you know anybody who can basically only talk about facts or statistics. Kind of like Sheldon, on Big Bang Theory (in case you know the show)
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Okay, anybody else know a person like this. Please share.
Never heard of such a thing in my life. My first thought was, "Wow, that would be such an easy way to annoy the living hell out of somebody", and my second thought was, "What a complete waste of time".
Which made me recall a William Gibson quote.
"The 'Net is a waste of time, and that's exactly what's right about it."
I have happily been able to quelch a lot of this (with a particular family member) by carrying my iPad around and whenever she starts spouting off (and arguing over "nothing") . . . I just google it and hand the iPad to Ms. Know-It-All. I don't have to say another word.
Do you know anybody who can basically only talk about facts or statistics. Kind of like Sheldon, on Big Bang Theory (in case you know the show)
Example.
You mention that you drove to a tourist destination, and they try to tell you how many miles it is.
Say you had a certain cereal for breakfast, and they'll spout out the company that owns them and their stock price.
Go hiking in the mountains, and you'll hear them tell you the elevation.
Fly to Detroit, and soon you'll hear how long the flight was.
You get the idea. I mean, this is not a conversation. And a lot of the time it might be inaccurate. Talking to someone like this, is just draining. And when they initiate a conversation with a question, it's only to spout out more of this "impressiveness".
Okay, anybody else know a person like this. Please share.
You present the unfounded projected notion that they try. That is nothing more than your perception. They are just being them. It is like beauty, they can't turn it off. No clue why peeps get offended.
Do you know anybody who can basically only talk about facts or statistics. Kind of like Sheldon, on Big Bang Theory (in case you know the show)
Example.
You mention that you drove to a tourist destination, and they try to tell you how many miles it is.
Say you had a certain cereal for breakfast, and they'll spout out the company that owns them and their stock price.
Go hiking in the mountains, and you'll hear them tell you the elevation.
Fly to Detroit, and soon you'll hear how long the flight was.
You get the idea. I mean, this is not a conversation. And a lot of the time it might be inaccurate. Talking to someone like this, is just draining. And when they initiate a conversation with a question, it's only to spout out more of this "impressiveness".
Okay, anybody else know a person like this. Please share.
My brother is sort of like that but I don't care. Last week my wife and I took a short vacation to a small town.
I told my brother where we were going and he immediately went on about the history of the area.
But it didn't bother me. I just thought, "Far out, he knows about the town."
I've met a few know-it-alls. I married one of them decades ago (he's deceased now unfortunately) and he was the best Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble player and fastest speed reader I've ever met. He was a born teacher and was great with helping our kids with their homework.
You could ask him any question about any other things and he would know the answer and be able to talk at length about it. Or else if he didn't know the answer he'd know exactly the right place where a person could go to make enquiries to find the correct answer.
Nobody minded his lengthy stories though, he always talked about interesting things and was well liked by everyone who knew him. He enjoyed being in the lime light and it made him feel good to be helpful and informative to people.
People who genuinely knowledgeable about a certain topic certainly deserve to be listened to. That shouldn't rankle anyone. For example, I have a relative who knows more about cars, certain sports, history and politics than I do, and I do listen to him. Why not? So what if someone knows more than you about a few topics? However, there are a couple of topics that I know more about than he does and it does irk me when he doesn't defer to me on these topics but just starts talking over me about these topics as if he knows everything already. That's when I feel annoyed. But I've learned from dealing with him for a number of years that it's not worth getting aggravated for the short period of time that I have to socialize with him. You have to pick your battles, especially when it comes to relatives.
I'm glad this thread was revived so a new group of members can post their experiences. I know one of these. As soon as I started reading the thread I got a vision in my mind of this person standing amongst a bunch of HVAC specialists, come to repair our system, lecturing them on how the system works. I don't know how they stood there so politely instead of either falling down laughing or walking away in impatience..this "expert" who clearly had no idea what they were talking about, went on for quite a while.
The HVAC guys probably had a good laugh later, anyway. And I agree, in many situations this kind of person can be a conversation killer.
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Love it
I know one of these. As soon as I started reading the thread I got a vision in my mind of this person standing amongst a bunch of HVAC specialists, come to repair our system, lecturing them on how the system works. I don't know how they stood there so politely instead of either falling down laughing or walking away in impatience..this "expert" who clearly had no idea what they were talking about, went on for quite a while.
