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    Joined: Mar 2013
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    Here's an article that I think will be sure to resonate:

    Ambient state of the Universe

    I especially liked the axiomatic observation regarding the speed of meetings but it does have a positive side:

    A meeting moves at the speed of the slowest mind in the room


    Last edited by madeinuk; 02/17/18 12:07 PM.

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    Originally Posted by RRD
    MsFriz, aquinas and Dude, have any of you ever checked out Paula Prober's "Your Rainforest Mind" blog? I have been reading some of her posts lately and they really resonate with me.

    I have read Paula Prober's book and even gave my sister a copy for Christmas, since she tends to suffer from imposter syndrome and doesn't see herself as gifted. Prober tries to avoid the loaded "g" word, so her stuff tends to go down easier with people who, for whatever reason, aren't comfortable with that label.

    I think Paula Prober's stuff is most helpful when you're ready to throw in the towel and embrace mediocrity. When everyone around you is saying, for example, "Why can't you just accept what is instead of focusing on what ought to be?" Paula Prober is there to reassure you that there's nothing wrong with aiming higher, even if it makes the people around you very uncomfortable--and not because aiming higher is intrinsically better, but because wanting to do so is an intrinsic part of your personality. She gives you permission to be yourself in situations where most people would try to explain why and how you need to be somebody else.

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    Originally Posted by madeinuk
    I especially liked the axiomatic observation regarding the speed of meetings but it does have a positive side:

    A meeting moves at the speed of the slowest mind in the room

    YES to meetings going at the speed of the slowest person in the room. Not just meetings but entire projects. And not just projects but the entire organizational change process. I feel like I'm swimming in molasses most days, or revving my engine in neutral. I suppose that's why I hate group work so much. It's not that I don't like working with people, it's just that I always seem to end up stifled and underutilized, never "working at the top of my license," as they say, because I'm constantly holding myself back.

    In my office, I also frequently get tapped to consult with or mentor colleagues, including my direct supervisors, and yet there's no quid pro quo. I'm always left wondering, when do I get to develop MY skills? Who is going to mentor me?

    It's like I'm still in the second grade, where, after my mom declined a grade skip for all the wrong reasons, my teacher paired me up with the slowest person in the room, so I could help her with her work after I had finished mine. That was literally decades ago, and yet I find myself reliving the same scenario on a daily basis to this day!

    I think the parallels between being a gifted child in a "no child left behind" classroom and a gifted adult in a lowest-common-denominator office setting are sorely unappreciated. I also believe that how a child experiences and deals with these issues in a classroom setting is highly predictive of how they're going to function in the work world (not especially well in my case).




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    I regularly do other people's work because it's the only way I can get mine done. One particular group is so notorious for incompetence that I have to send them exact command syntax, because while they have no idea what they're doing, I am not authorized to do it for them. So, they're professional sock puppets.

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    I can't decide if my school district's standards have really gone massively downhill since I was a kid or what, because my parents would never have dreamed of advocating for me the way I feel like I have to advocate for my kids. And yet still the programming seems so hopelessly inadequate for DD12. Then again I suffer from some pretty intense imposter syndrome sometimes, perhaps because I didn't have to work very hard at school at any level.

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    Originally Posted by Aufilia
    if my school district's standards have really gone massively downhill since I was a kid
    Most likely, yes. When reviewing a school's "alignment" to common core standards, many have found that the curriculum was being dumbed down in the process... the kids were learning to develop a smaller academic toolkit than kids used to learn:
    - If a topic moved UP to a higher grade, the curriculum was being dumbed down.
    - If a topic disappeared (such as phonics*, cursive, roman numerals), the curriculum was being dumbed down.
    - If a topic moved DOWN to a lower grade, it was possible that the curriculum was becoming more rigorous... however this depends in part on the assessment measures and "teaching to the test." Kids may now be considered "proficient" or even "advanced" while demonstrating much less knowledge than in the past.

    It may be wise to stockpile good books while the opportunity still exists to do so.

    *Note: Phonics is included as part of Common Core, however some schools have dropped phonics. Some of these schools dropped phonics specifically when aligning to common core.

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    Originally Posted by indigo
    Originally Posted by Dude
    Quote
    Ugh, yes! The "what does that word mean" in a professional setting is maddening!

    Or its corollary, "that word does not mean what you think it means." My organization is notorious for using vague and unhelpful terminology, then wondering why we're constantly talking past each other. It's almost as if we need an organization-to-English dictionary.
    Agreed.

    One company, known for ruthless negotiation, had a brief TV commercial spot created. While still in final phase editing, they renegotiated a lower price. This was mentioned jubilantly when they gathered employees together for a perfunctory social occasion victory dinner and screened the ad, whose final line was, "We want to be your penultimate consulting firm!"

    Note: Penultimate means second-to-last. Possibly including this closing line was the ad company's response to being paid less than the amount originally agreed to; The ad company may have had the last laugh... as the shrewd negotiators evidently were not as strong in their vocabulary skills, but were quite proud to be "penultimate!" smirk

    Did they ever work it out? Words are beautiful yet we only use a small proportion of them. I have been criticised for using too many big words and had people complain they can't understand me. Why is this a fault with me rather than the other person?

    Last edited by puffin; 03/24/18 04:57 PM.
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    Originally Posted by puffin
    Words are beautiful yet we only use a small proportion of them. I have been criticised for using too many big words and had people complain they can't understand me. Why is this a fault with me rather than the other person?
    Many of us have had this experience.
    1) Your strength in vocabulary may highlight another's weakness in that area.
    2) This is related to another area of strength which many of us may struggle with: Know your audience.
    Years of professional experience with individuals having different knowledge bases, including English Language Learners, have gotten some us into a habit of speaking/writing in a thesaurus-like manner... often using two or three different words or phrases in one sentence to define, describe, and communicate the same idea. This casts a wider net for an audience to potentially catch and adopt an idea.

    Do any of you play HQ trivia? On weekdays it typically consists of 12 questions. The game show host frequently announces the 11th question as the penultimate question. smile HQ has an audience which enjoys mental stimulation including vocabulary words which may be infrequently used.

    ETA: Related post (May 2019)

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    Oh, if it's worse than it used to be, I doubt it's because of the common core. It's because of the demographics of who lives here now. This used to be a bedroom community for lots of aerospace engineers.

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    Originally Posted by indigo
    Originally Posted by puffin
    Words are beautiful yet we only use a small proportion of them. I have been criticised for using too many big words and had people complain they can't understand me. Why is this a fault with me rather than the other person?
    Many of us have had this experience.
    1) Your strength in vocabulary may highlight another's weakness in that area.
    2) This is related to another area of strength which many of us may struggle with: Know your audience.
    Years of professional experience with individuals having different knowledge bases, including English Language Learners, have gotten some us into a habit of speaking/writing in a thesaurus-like manner... often using two or three different words or phrases in one sentence to define, describe, and communicate the same idea. This casts a wider net for an audience to potentially catch and adopt an idea.

    Do any of you play HQ trivia? On weekdays it typically consists of 12 questions. The game show host frequently announces the 11th question as the penultimate question. smile HQ has an audience which enjoys mental stimulation including vocabulary words which may be infrequently used.

    I have learnt to choose my words to suit the audience - i wasn't so good at it in my teens though. Now i work with a lot of people who know words i don't which is wonderful.

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