About writing to an author (Was : Re: TBAY poll and Majority rule)

[Amanda]

> Amanda had said : 
>  
> > It seems to me that writing to the author *would* be working 
> > together. 
> 
> Del answers :
> 
> Not for me. Writing to the author would be making a fool of myself. 
> It would mean signalling to someone whose work I'm interested in 
that 
> I'm a fool stupid enough not to understand it, which is of course 
the 
> last thing I'd want to do !

Amanda:

This is a perception thing, I can see. I'd have considered it 
complimentary to the author that they intrigued me enough to warrant 
the effort of a follow-up for clarification. As the author of some 
things that have been asked about, that's certainly the way I took 
it. Wow--somebody *read* what I said, and wanted to know 
more/understand better/etc. !! Total compliment, and in many cases 
helped me refine my point by making me think it through again in 
responding to them.

> Amanda had said :
>  
> > And if you don't understand it, why bother? I mean, nobody 
follows 
> > all the nuances of every single thread. I have never seen that 
> > there's all that much of a problem.
> 
> Del answers :
> 
> Call me a control freak if you like, but it makes me feel stupid to 
> not understand something my fellows do. It makes me feel inferior. 
I 
> have this deep-rooted belief that I must be smart to be respectable 
> and respected. I guess it's just some kind of inferiority complex, 
> but it's very powerful.

Amanda:

Another perception thing. Why do you believe everyone else 
understands it? It's entirely likely that many people had the same 
confusion you did, and nobody wanted to be the one to raise their 
hand (on or offline), and so a great point went non-understood.

I have tended to come right out and say "Hey, maybe I'm stupid, but I 
couldn't follow this" onlist, myself, on the assumption that, given 
our size, at least a couple other interested people couldn't follow 
it either and would appreciate me being the one to request 
explanation.

I don't think I'm stupid--but there are certainly ways of putting 
ideas together, analytical approaches, etc., that I won't be able to 
readily follow. Not everyone accesses information the same way. 

[On a related note, if someone I am carrying on a thread with is 
intellectual snob enough to condescend in explaining, or otherwise 
imply that I am mentally inferior if I can't follow their brilliant 
reasoning--well, hey, I want to know that too. Again, though--that's 
*their* perception, not mine.]

This is fascinating, the different perspectives I've been seeing here.

~Amanda