![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
or maybe he is
Apr. 20th, 2011 10:09 pmI don't have to cite my source if it's a fark commenter, right? Good.
In a unrelated, completely original thought I had: if you don't understand a signal, it looks like noise. Scott Adams talks all the time about how stupid certain social rituals are, and about potential inventions to ameliorate the need to deal with other people. That sure sounds like autistic spectrum issues. That could explain why he's so scientific about some things, and so completely lost on others. I didn't notice because he covers it with humor.
And yet, he really does fit the classic narcissistic troll. It's a puzzler.
ETA: This would also explains why he keeps using "but he's smart" as a defense, both of himself and Donald Trump. "He's smarter than me, so if I don't understand what he's doing, the problem is probably on my end" is not a bad attitude to have, but you really have to apply it to specific arenas, not general intelligence. Smart people believe and do all kinds of dumbass things. Certain dumbass things appear to be exclusively the purview of smart people.
Charitably, this is also a brilliant example of people seeing things through their own filters. Adams complains about being quoted out of context and misleadingly paraphrased. He then decides to defend Gwenyth Paltrow from the accuasation that she's a gloater. But the specific article he attacks isn't really about Paltrow at all- it merely uses a quote from her to launch a discussion on people who were born on third and think they hit a triple, mostly in politics. But all Adams can see is the attack on a celebrity whose statements weren't quite as bad as people think they are.
In a unrelated, completely original thought I had: if you don't understand a signal, it looks like noise. Scott Adams talks all the time about how stupid certain social rituals are, and about potential inventions to ameliorate the need to deal with other people. That sure sounds like autistic spectrum issues. That could explain why he's so scientific about some things, and so completely lost on others. I didn't notice because he covers it with humor.
And yet, he really does fit the classic narcissistic troll. It's a puzzler.
ETA: This would also explains why he keeps using "but he's smart" as a defense, both of himself and Donald Trump. "He's smarter than me, so if I don't understand what he's doing, the problem is probably on my end" is not a bad attitude to have, but you really have to apply it to specific arenas, not general intelligence. Smart people believe and do all kinds of dumbass things. Certain dumbass things appear to be exclusively the purview of smart people.
Charitably, this is also a brilliant example of people seeing things through their own filters. Adams complains about being quoted out of context and misleadingly paraphrased. He then decides to defend Gwenyth Paltrow from the accuasation that she's a gloater. But the specific article he attacks isn't really about Paltrow at all- it merely uses a quote from her to launch a discussion on people who were born on third and think they hit a triple, mostly in politics. But all Adams can see is the attack on a celebrity whose statements weren't quite as bad as people think they are.
