Anyone else experiencing the inability of people to make clear, concise statements? It’s epidemic at work. I’ve started telling people they have 30 seconds to get the point across. Most fail.
Posts: 13948 | Location: Shenandoah Valley, VA | Registered: October 16, 2008
Sometimes it's loneliness or a lack of social skills. They ramble because they want to engage with another person, and because they don't have anyone else to talk to.
Sometimes it's simply being scatterbrained, or wired differently so that the flow and connections make sense in their own mind but sounds like rambling to some others (which is where many women seem to fall)
Sometimes it's just being deeply insecure, timid, or anxious, and hoping that by beating around the bush and lobbing a softball, their point or request won't be seen as rude, or pushy, or needy, or offensive, or whatever.
Sometimes it's purely being an arrogant blowhard who likes to hear themselves speak, and believe that by bloviating and taking up all the oxygen in the room people will respect them and think that they're brilliant.This message has been edited. Last edited by: RogueJSK,
At work, all day everyday. So many “fake it until you make it” people that have no business with the role/job. Many days it’s just a nightmare. It is a very widespread problem.
What am I doing? I'm talking to an empty telephone
Posts: 13549 | Location: Down South | Registered: January 16, 2010
"We can’t bust heads like we used to—but we have our ways. One trick is to tell them stories that don’t go anywhere like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so I decided to go to Morganville which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So, I tied an onion to my belt which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel. And in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ‘em. ‘Give me five bees for a quarter,’ you’d say. Now, where were we? Oh, yeah! The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt which was the style at the time. They didn’t have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones." -- Abe Simpson
הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים
Posts: 32336 | Location: Central Florida, Orlando area | Registered: January 03, 2010
Originally posted by Leemur: Anyone else experiencing the inability of people to make clear, concise statements? It’s epidemic at work. I’ve started telling people they have 30 seconds to get the point across. Most fail.
TLDR
Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity
DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.
Posts: 24438 | Location: Northern Suburbs of Houston | Registered: November 14, 2005
I distinctly recall my grandmother prattling on for nearly five minutes to convey that she needed me to buy a single item from the grocery store.
"I'm yet another resource-consuming kid in an overpopulated planet raised to an alarming extent by Hollywood and Madison Avenue, poised with my cynical and alienated peers to take over the world when you're old and weak!" - Calvin, "Calvin & Hobbes"
Posts: 18213 | Location: Sonoma County, CA | Registered: April 09, 2004
This drives me nuts- a multi-paragraph conversation (typically one-way) that could have been summarized in 2-3 sentences. It's like "meeting that should've been an email" in person.
People like that make my ass twitch.
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-- Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. --
Posts: 18107 | Location: New Mexico | Registered: October 14, 2005
Omg. I complain about this to my co-worker every day.
"Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it." L.Tolstoy "A government is just a body of people, usually, notably, ungoverned." Shepherd Book
Posts: 13673 | Location: In the gilded cage | Registered: December 09, 2007
There was a time when the news was delivered on paper. One paid for the paper prior to reading so one could start articles with a paragraph the contained relevant content.
Internet "journalists" need to capture views so they start articles with 5 paragraphs of barely relevant information before anything of substance.
Monkey see, Monkey do.
And that's general writing, business writing requires more thought to form concise sentences and paragraphs. One of my most treasured compliments came from a tough boss: "Your writing is terse, and that's a good thing." Woodrow Wilson said it best: "How long does it take you to prepare one of your speeches?” asked a friend of President Wilson. “That depends on the length of the speech,” answered the President. “If it is a 10-minute speech, it takes me all of two weeks to prepare it; if it is a half hour speech, it takes me a week; if I can talk as long as I want to, it requires no preparation at all. I am ready now.” Internet writing provides all the time in the world.
Let me help you out. Which way did you come in?
Posts: 824 | Location: North of Pittsburgh, PA | Registered: January 29, 2013
Regarding the tendency of older people to be verbose, some of it may be due to cognitive decline and the inability to express themselves clearly, and some may be a desire for the companionship they no longer have because they’re no longer working and have lost friends and acquaintances.
But I’ll also point out that sometimes it’s because their life experiences and therefore their education about many topics mean that there is a lot they can say about those topics. Despite my own efforts to not bore people, I can easily go on and on about certain subjects. Fifty years ago if the subject of riflescopes had come up, I wouldn’t have had much more to say than that I could see a target when looking through the one I had and it wasn’t too expensive. Today, however ….
Somewhat ironically, though, we often see comments that an older military veteran “Never talked about that.” Although a reluctance to resurrect painful memories is one common reason, the other, and probably more common one is that they realize that simply no one cares about their stories and have learned to just shut up.
► 6.0/94.0
To operate serious weapons in a serious manner.
Posts: 48381 | Location: 10,150 Feet Above Sea Level in Colorado | Registered: April 04, 2002