People Don't Listen Enough

[Kung Fu Wang]

Same here. I'll pay attention to the first few, ...

When a thread discussion starts to get abstract, most of the time, I'll just stop right there.

 

[JowGaWolf]

I would have to say that a big problem in this world is that people don't listen enough. Now, listening is something you usually do with your ears but you can also listen with your eyes. How? When you're reading stuff if you pay attention to what you're reading, that's how you listen with your eyes. And when Im talking about reading stuff that includes stuff such as posts on internet message boards.

All too often on internet message boards people don't pay attention to what they're reading, or at least they act like they don't. That would include internet forums such as this one but its not just this one, on just about all of the Internet forums I've been to, and I've been to quite a bit, there are people who don't "listen." People will ignore parts of posts, when you do that you're not listening so to speak. Just like how people sometimes ignore what other people are saying out loud, people sometimes ignore what other people post on message boards when they read the messages and this will often include just parts of the post which is no good because by ignoring part of a post you're not getting the full meaning of the post so its just like ignoring the whole post.

You've got two ears and just one mouth, and you've also go two eyes, so people should listen more and that includes paying attention to what they're reading when they're reading posts and to pay attention to the entire post and to do that when they're reading all messages on all message boards including this one but not limited to just this one.

Cheer up.

 

[JowGaWolf]

When a thread discussion starts to get abstract, most of the time, I'll just stop right there.

When conversations go abstract

 

[JowGaWolf]

When a conversation is practical

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

When conversations go abstract
View attachment 32918

Practical - MA is as simple as fist meet face.
Abstract - MA is fighting without fighting.

 

[PhotonGuy]

People Don't Listen Enough​

If you are a Christian, will you listen to a Muslim preacher, abandon your religion, and become a Muslim?

We all have our believe and non-believe. If online discussion can change our mind, our believe may not be strong enough.

I might listen to a muslim preacher if I want to learn more about Islamism from an academic standpoint but that doesn't mean I would abandon my religion and join Islamism. Just because you listen to somebody doesn't mean you have to agree with them or do as they say.

 

[PhotonGuy]

Listening doesn’t necessarily mean agreeing with.

Exactly

 

[PhotonGuy]

If you always watch MSNBC news and CNN news, will you one day suddenly turn on FOX new, watch it, and raise your blood pressure for no good reason?

I left another "internal" MA forum. In that forum, people always talk about abstract stuff. Nobody is interested in concrete stuff such as skill development, ability development, strategy, footwork, ... To listen to people who only talk about abstract stuff just waste my lifetime completely.

If I don't want to watch Fox News I simply wouldn't turn to it, but if I am going to watch a news station, whether its MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, or whatever, I would pay attention to what Im watching. It doesn't make sense to watch something, or read something for that matter (such as messages on message board forums) it you're not going to pay attention to what you're watching or reading.

 

[PhotonGuy]

You're certainly under no obligation to spend time engaging with those whose conversation you are not interested in. We all have limited time in our lives. We can't hear out everybody in the world.

But if we are going to be in a conversation with someone, whether in person or on a message board, then it behooves us to actually pay attention to what they are saying, rather than spouting off our own thoughts and filling in the other person's side with our imagined ideas of what they might be saying. I believe this is the point that PhotonGuy was trying to make.

That is exactly the point Im trying to make, thank you.

 

[PhotonGuy]

The best way to encourage listening is to keep it short and simple. That way rather than essay rant vs. essay rant, you get something more like a tennis match...back and forth juggling key ideas.

Alright I see what you mean but even when I do keep it short and simple people sometimes don't pay attention to the entire post and when they do that, it changes the meaning of the post.

Im going to give you examples of two sentences.

Sentence A: "The President wants to lower taxes."

Sentence B: "The President wants to lower taxes, for the middle class."

Notice that sentence A is contained within sentence B. If somebody reads sentence B but only pays attention to the first part, the part that contains sentence A, it changes its meaning.

 

[PhotonGuy]

I think a lot of it comes down to succintness. If you're repeating your point multiple times (either in one post, or over the course of many), people will either skip or skim a lot of it. Then miss whatever nuance you're pointing out, as they stopped 'listening' halfway through.

It's not even a conscious thing. When the brain reads information and is like "Yeah I got that message" it just moves on.

Well the frustrating thing is that even when I do repeat a point multiple times if I still haven't made it, or at least if I've got the impression that people haven't gotten it.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

Well the frustrating thing is that even when I do repeat a point multiple times if I still haven't made it, or at least if I've got the impression that people haven't gotten it.

If your opinion can help just 1 person in the world, your opinion will have value.

A: You should try ...
B: That's a bad idea.
C: +1.
D: +2.
E: +3.
F: I have tried your suggestion. It really works. Thanks a lot.

 

[Sammy Naur]

Alright I see what you mean but even when I do keep it short and simple people sometimes don't pay attention to the entire post and when they do that, it changes the meaning of the post.

Im going to give you examples of two sentences.

Sentence A: "The President wants to lower taxes."

Sentence B: "The President wants to lower taxes, for the middle class."

Notice that sentence A is contained within sentence B. If somebody reads sentence B but only pays attention to the first part, the part that contains sentence A, it changes its meaning.

You just solved your own problem.

The more concise your statement, the smaller it is, the less chance for boredom, confusion, or misunderstanding.

Definitely, never make a joke.

 

[PhotonGuy]

You just solved your own problem.

The more concise your statement, the smaller it is, the less chance for boredom, confusion, or misunderstanding.

Definitely, never make a joke.

Well lets say Im describing a hypothetical situation where the President does want to lower taxes for the middle class, I don't know of any shorter or simpler way to say it other than by saying, "The President wants to lower taxes for the middle class."

When people only pay attention to the first part about the President wanting to lower taxes and not the second part about it being exclusively for the middle class it changes the meaning of the sentence. The meaning is that the President only wants to lower taxes for the middle class, not for everybody across the board, and Im keeping it short and simple and getting to the point so there is no reason why anybody reading the sentence shouldn't pay attention to the whole thing.