For Dien Rice

> Hello Dien,

> I have been dealing with "newbies"
> and down-market drongos for 20 years

What concerns me is, this is how you think of your own customers.

NOT as people who are actually trying to better themselves. But as drongos.

At one point in your life, you too were a "newbie" and could have been considered a "drongo" from a certain point of view.

Some people learn slower than others. And in the real world, this is not surprising thanks to our rote learning system. Kids are taught to learn by rote, but we actually learn by doing. So when the adult encounters a "learn by doing" task, they understandably do not exactly know how to procede. And instinctively revert back to a spoon-fed learn by rote mentality.

This does not make them a "drongo" or any less of a person.

I once witnessed a "leading hand" get right up one of his crew. A crew member who was "new" on the job.

After a couple of minutes of yelling and screaming at this new guy for not doing a certain job, the new guy quite calmly (to my surprise) said, "But Bob, you haven't shown me how to do that yet."

> because
> I did not have the benefit of a proper
> education.

I am detecting a little "victim-hood" here. As in I have to deal with people I consider to be mentally inferior to myself and not really worth my time, because I didn't get a degree.

It's actually probably a good thing you didn't get a degree because, in my experience, people with degrees (even just a BA) become "Academic Snobs." Too good to mix with people who have no degree. (There are exceptions, like Dien.)

As you seem to already consider people drongos, a degree would make your outlook worse.

> You've achieved a Ph.D in
> Thoeretical Physics (my youngest son is
> currently on that route),

It's great for people to go as far as they go in a field they thoroughly enjoy. However, that does not make then any better a person.

Dien may know things we could never grasp. His PhD is proof he has added New knowledge to the field of Quantum Physics. But can Dien build a car engine from scratch - or even repair a car engine? Can Dien hand make a reproduction Victorian Side Table?

Probably not on both accounts. Yet a person Without a degree can do those things. And they may even have left school (did not graduate) to learn their skill.

> but now you have
> chosen to mix with a majority of
> "no-hopers" who are mostly
> complete drongos.

Again, we have an attack on a person's intelligence.

Let me ask you... what defines someone as being a "drongo" to you?

> WHY?? The drongos will
> drive you mad - eventually. Please go back
> and GIVE back to the World that which you
> owe to it, and ALL of US !!

I'm not entirely sure what you think Dien OWES to You, or anyone, as far as physics goes. And I'm sure, there are billions of people in the world whose lives will not change one iota, even if Dien should discover the one unifying theory of the universe. To many, it would matter. To many more, nothing would change.

So what actually do you think Dien OWES to "us?"

Michael Ross