All of that could be true, but still, why in the world would you think being a dick is the appropriate response? Why not just disengage? Sure, masque is quirky, but does he offend you somehow?

Όσα δε φτάνει η αλεπού τα κάνει κρεμαστάρια.

To be an agent of change. I also have a belief that confronting problems is often better than avoiding them. Doing nothing and expecting things to change seems like a grossly ineffective approach. The tone basically changed at the time that he insisted that this is the way he wants to be and that he's utterly unwilling to consider doing anything different.

It's always an option, but I consider it one of the last options. That's like giving up on hope.

No offense is ever taken. I also didn't mind getting into it with Bruce when he used to post around here. I think Masque has plenty of value to contribute. But the signal-to-noise ratio is terrible. Pretending like he's using this thread to teach people things about vector calculus comes off as him blowing smoke up his own skirt. I don't think he's arrogant on purpose, I just think he's socially inept.

(When I'm a jerk, I'm doing it on purpose. It's a willful decision to act in a certain way. I let Zeno draw the line on how far I can try to push it. I think there's some misconception that I'm emotionally involved in this or something.)

The quality of grapes aside, I still have hope that he will eventually become a better poster.

I mean that's fine, but I don't even get why people are annoyed by him. It's the same with Sklansky, who get's gobs of **** over in P for being too much of a math robot or whatever. So what? We know where they're coming from.

I always think of Masque as sort of a nutty professor who overthinks things a lot, but then again, sometimes it's nice to get the point of view of a nutty professor who overthinks things. And he comes in very useful on really tough math and physics stuff, being a rocket scientist and all. Maybe you appreciate that less being so adept at math. Anyway, I feel under no obligation to read his super long posts when I don't need that point of view. I have no desire to change him, because that's just who he is. Just my take, feel free to troll him, but it would be a shame if it drove him off, imo.

I am not pretending anything. You perceive as showing off what i perceive as love for thinking about problems and the world. I am in love with nature.

I am 100% confident that there are people here that havent seen this derivation for a general curve by the way and they are instantly able to recognize its truth from the simple basic vector calculus involved and then proceed to study for fun a little bit of differential geometry of curves in the links provided. Why not?

They may be veterans or new students of calculus (II,III) etc. I bet both actually are the case as many read and rarely post. It is very satisfying to see how the v^2/r is actually true in general for any radius of curvature not just the circle. I am sure a decent thinker would wonder what happens when the path is eg parabola or something not circular? Dont you have centripetal then? What is it?


It is also essential to the discussion here because you need the general expression of the radius of curvature to set up the problem constraint. That comes from its derivation definition.


Plus how ridiculous not to imagine that one of the reasons i post is myself also to set up the problem itself. Could it be that my posts help me as well? Could it be that as many ideas as possible is exactly how i want it in order to arrive at some interesting one? Could it be that this way others can also arrive at more interesting ideas?

I would love to have never posted in this thread and see what would have happened 3 days later.


I am not arrogant to think that nothing would have happened because many well educated, bright and caring people post here but i would love to have been able to see what direction would have been taken and what would have been learned by all of us myself included if i had stayed out as an observer.

I am sure that many people have also wondered how a car works in general with respect to torque, friction and traction, how it loses control etc. Why isnt that an opportunity to study these things also? Why not even study Nascar tracks and other tracks and learn about their geometry and properties? The thread is always an opportunity to learn many things if people post their ideas.


I participate because i know that if 5 active brains (and another 5 less active etc because they are busy with other things) heavily post content and interact without the bs attitude garbage, constructively with their own content, suggestions and ideas, then each brain will interact with the others non-linearly in time (the more the better in a nonlinear sense) and all will emerge stronger (than if left alone in silence or brief exchanges) because we would be starting soon 10 different discussions on points of interest triggering each other's creativity further. How intolerable!

I post because i seek these brains. One day you will realize why i ever bothered.

It's like De ja Vu without the sensation.

Taking curves is fun. I tend to avoid the interstate and take curvy two-lane routes when I can.

I agree. But I'm pretty sure I don't have enough power over him to drive him off.

This is why I think you're just that socially inept.

I'm sure it does. You've declared many times that you are utterly unwilling to think about a problem before posting, and that you relish the stream of consciousness process that leads to broadly incoherent posts and ideas that have clearly not been thought through completely.

The appropriate response to someone who thinks that his ideas being challenged is evil is to correct him a second time for being wrong twice.

After that, the correct response is to make sure that everyone knows that there is an idiot twice over present, lest they listen to the idiot.

I forget, how old are you Brian?

Not as ancient as Zeno. Older than you.

I thought this was going to be a thread about sex. I was wrong. I think. I didn't read any of the posts but the last few. So just an arrogant presumption on my part.

Has anyone mentioned Benny Hill in this thread yet? If not: first in.

What exactly you or AaronW challenged or corrected here and anywhere else recently anyway? Are you both kidding me with this arrogant bs? Get the f off this attitude that without offering any serious content you will come out as correcting people that actually provided material to the thread.

Socially inept? How about you guys being socially mfers actually and Zeno not sending you to hell for this behavior helping run the forum to the ground eventually turning it into a place of permanent sarcasm and one liner laziness. Do you think your behavior actually invites people to post here? Who bothers to come here produce some work and be insulted for it also by those that stay in the corners and will post nothing of relevant value or explain anything in detail if left alone, only bitch about what others post and occasionally post very little.

You keep this bs and Zeno tolerating this garbage trolling behavior by a few characters here and i will ignore you or stop posting.

You want to correct something you come out and say clearly what is a better way to see things and make a decent post of your own to offer content. Prove your case. Post like decent bright people who know how to disagree and offer respect at the same time like PairTheBoard, Zeno, LastCardCharlie, Chezlaw, Foldndark, spanktehbadwookie, Veeddzz, Piers, Howard Beale, RyanB9, Mackeleven, Rikers etc among others recently active that i recall to have had disagreed with before in a decent constructive manner (not singling out these people from all others that also provide valuable content and post without animosities, just trying to recall who i have had in recent threads disagreed with the way i perceive disagreements ought to happen to promote a civil discussion).

This is how people should behave in SMP threads. Only then ideas flourish and interactions focus on the truly important. They post their ideas and argue about them with examples and questions that help the discussion and do not desire to insult the other person.

I've challenged the idea that it takes several long posts to answer someone's question. And I've shown how it can be done in just a couple dozen words. I also question how much value is actually added when you post in a rambling and mostly incomprehensible manner.

Nope.

Yup.

My behavior is intended to change your posting habits. I've made this clear. You'll notice that with other posters (such as OP), I answer the question in a simple, straight-forward manner that fosters intuition and understanding. I actually answer questions that are asked, not try to make the problem so complicated so that people don't understand what I'm saying.

I respect OP enough to answer the question he asked without assuming he's a moron that needs to be given a 30 minute lecture about the derivation of the formula for centripetal acceleration. You might be right that >90% of the people on the this forum have never seen the derivation. But I think you're wrong in your estimation of the actual value that it brings to the conversation.

And I think the reality is that your style of posting doesn't encourage anyone else to post. Have you noticed how few people actually respond to you? Most people ignore the walls of text you create. It's mostly just noise that's ignored.

I think you do.

You don't have the monopoly on how ideas flourish. The simple facts are that (1) you're extremely arrogant, (2) you rarely learn from others, and (3) you take very little interest in trying to improve as a poster. And you're wrong a lot more than you think you are.

Here's an example of a thread that exhibits all three behaviors:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/47...oblem-1579198/

(1) Quoting you: "Are you sure you understand what is going on here as well as i think i do?" (Oh, but this isn't arrogant or insulting because you added the words "I think" in the middle... at least according to you.)

(2) You probably still think you're absolutely right to use an arbitrary EV calculation to measure the value of an investment of indeterminate length. (You can correct me by saying that you no longer believe your model is appropriate.)

(3) Well, you just have to get out of your own head for a few minutes to see it.

I find AaronW's contributions to be thoughtful and interesting.

List them here in this thread. List one idea that was not delivered already before by another.

I want to make it very clear to Zeno. This is SMP. A standard of proper respectable behavior towards other people is essential in Science, Math and Philosophy. You can offer opinions on issues of substance without insulting others. If people start attacking with personal insults each other then new ideas will not emerge as often because people may not bother themselves to invite such insulting behavior. It is essential in science to be able to offer your ideas without such behavior. Intelligent people simply offer better ideas with proofs or examples and the needed improvement of the discussion is established. If this doesnt happen then they can simply see this as a hostile pathetic community and give it the finger it deserves. I am prepared to do exactly that starting today.

Either Zeno wakes up that there are some dysfunctional mfers posting here that live to attack other people and do not know how to properly offer their ideas without insulting others or i wont bother ever again to post anything here.

This i not an empty threat.

I stop posting right now as of this moment unless i see some action (suggestions, bans, guidance, secret IMs, whatever, do it) taken about this bs.

He (Aaron) solved the OP's question. I thought that was valuable.

LOL @ your ultimatum.

I suggest you take a break for a couple days. Give yourself a chance to unwind and reflect. You're clearly waaaay too emotionally engaged right now. If it will make you feel better, I'm literally going to be on a desert island all week next week without internet access. You can pretend it's a self-ban of some sort.

Edit: I'll also remind you -- You choose who you engage with. You choose which posts you read. You're not some sort of helpless child here. You're all grown-up. If it bothers you that I challenge your thinking and your posting, ignore my posts. If you lack the self-control to do that, then block them. It's not nearly as dramatic or complicated as you're making it.

Dear lord, that is rich. You don't like to be insulted, well consider this:

- It is an insult to post long, rambling walls of text that seem to be streams of consciousness.

- It is an insult to make this forum and nearly every thread all about you.

- It is an insult to make no attempt to interact with and learn from other posters.

- It is an insult to then play the victim card when other posters complain.

- It is an insult to be repetitive and post additional walls of text adding little.

- It is an insult to suck all the oxygen out of a forum.

I could go on but I don't want to be overly long and repetitive.

Aaron's cause to try to change Masque exists in his own head as a personal problem. So he can stop bothering people like masque with his personal problem. That way threads won't become about his personal problem and will stay on topic.

I think Zeno has been trying to send us all to hell for some time now. If he ever succeeds we should get it on tape and post it on youtube.

PairTheBoard

"Insult" isn't quite the correct word. It is "extremely inconsiderate."

To head things off at the pass: No, it is not inconsiderate to tell someone who is being inconsiderate that they are being inconsiderate.

Looks masque meant what he said.

Come back, masque and Bruce! And durkadurka!

Aaron, why did you do this?