Re: [DL] Stupid Questions (OT)

[PEGGoff@aol.com]

> > BTW, I never call someone an idiot for asking a question. An idiot is
> > someone who has a question but doesn't ask, and proceeds anyway.
> 
> There is no stupid questions, only stupid people. :)
> 

Sorry to digress, but I just had to put in my two cents. :-)

I had heard the same thing in the military several times. I also went through training with a guy who went on to prove every instructor who said that wrong...dead wrong.

To the point where the instructor actually said, "Well...I was wrong. That _is_ a stupid question. Shut up, private."

And the sad thing was the guy wasn't trying to be funny. He actually just asked stupid questions. Examples follow:

"Okay, if the Czech language has a verb for "to go by car" and "to walk" which one would I use if I was sitting in my car but it was out of gas and I had one foot out the door pushing it?"

or...

"If you determine the height of a hilltop on a topographical map by taking the height of the last topographical line crossed and going up half the distance to the next line, what happens if the hill is actually a volcano?"

The thought behind the questions show the guy had a pretty sharp mind, but the questions themselves are so specific that...well, the instructors pretty much hit it on the head, IMO. :-)

John