Wy do you suppose people answer questions when they clearly have no idea what the correct answer is?

I think questions that I can solve by researching, are pointless. It’s essentially a way to get someone else to do the work for you. In questions that aren’t 100% research, sometimes I’ll answer with a suggestion of how I think the solution might be obtained.

Taking direction from your keywords, many stupid people are least objectively aware of their stupidity. Same goes with talent, which is why we get such awful segments of American Idol.

Also, I imagine some people feel compelled to “participate” by answering many questions. Just like others participate in debating the great questions of our day by forwarding crap to everyone they know.

I don’t know what the answer is to this question. Should I write anything?

Sometimes when I don’t know the answer to a question, but think it’s interesting and difficult, I’ll try and take a stab. Then other people might come along and add something to my answer, and we can get somewhere. Maybe my answer will be a little helpful, and the asker—or someone else—can take it from there. It’s tapping the collective©. Yo.

Hopefully the essence of what’s you’re inferring in your question is why do people answer questions disingenuously? Good thing we’re not all fascists here.

I don’t know

I see very few random guesses here. We are a community – curious, polite, helpful, flawed, playful at times…..Often, as in life or graduate school, it is the process that assists us in arriving at a solution, or at least, a compromise and some useful info.

example

This daily-calorie question is reasonable altho a little short on useful data. The first responder A is polite, guarded, and qualifies his answer. The second responder B attacks A and clearly has not read his (A’s) answer carefully before shooting from the hip. Additionally, B’s answer is absolutist and not very helpful to people who don’t power lift ;-) or have other variables, such as age, disabilities, allergies, body type.

Bob said it first and said it better.

sndfreg, look up these words:
infer
imply
fascist

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logorrhoea.

Also check out the difference between “hopefully” and “I hope” or “one hopes.” This is one of my favorite irritants, although I believe that most of the English-speaking world no longer gives a hang. I hope that I am wrong. Oy.

Right Gailcalled. If you were to actually read the answer, as well as follow the link that I posted, then you’d see that I in fact answered the question in it’s entirety. My answer has nothing to do with powerlifting whatsoever. I did supply information based on different requirements, though.

That answer is based on years of intensive study of nutrition and exercise science.

Allergies have absolutely nothing to do with caloric intake!

So A, being me, in fact answered the intire question! Why? Because it’s one of my fields of expertise, so I knew what basal metabolic rate was. I didn’t read a cereal box one morning and see what the FDA wrote based on multi-demographic averages.

Maybe I’m too anal for some, but if I were to ask a question, I wouldn’t want people just taking a stab at an answer with no true basis for saying so.

Also. What good is tapping the collective and building off of collective misinformation? If ten people answer with the same poor info, the question asker will actually believe the answers to be fact.

Lastly. Someone said “I don’t know” is a great answer! WOW…

Fascist: Most overused and misused insult of the century.

Joe; I am sure that you are well educated and well-informed in your field, but for me, the study of BMR is not helpful for putting together a personal eating plan. I did read your answer and link carefully and still found what person B said to be more helpful for me. And I thought that you were unnecessarily rude to him….

I spent a year working w. a nutritionist – a PhD in microbiology from Harvard – and w. his help, lost 40 lbs. Albany Med. College sent young doctors to sit in on his sessions because his methods were so successful and long-lasting. No one ever mentioned basal metabolic rates.

And you underestimate the collective. As I said, sometimes we get playful; and one of the fundamental goals is to be courteous and respectful, even if we aren’t always Einsteins.

You, of course, are correct, about allergies not being connected to caloric intake. Sorry.

Thank you Joe. It took hours of study and research – Google, Ask, Yahoo, tea leaves, entrails, consultation with the oracle – to realize I had no idea why people do…anything. Insufficient data has never stopped me from drawing conclusions, asserting facts or pretending I know what I’m talking about; my favorite pastime. I am right about everything at least 80% of the time. The other 20% I consider learning experience.

We should, however, be cautious to not shoot off and give incorrect information, for two reasons: 1) the recipient then learns incorrectly; and 2) we don’t know what they may do in reliance on this information. This is why so many people complain you can’t get a simple answer out of doctors and lawyers, as we know we might give what to us is a simple answer, it may be misunderstood and misused, and then our malpractice carrier might have to pay a claim for something occurring we were never directly involved in. Answering the simplest question without knowing the correct answer can have serious unintended consequences.

Example: A couple of months ago, I had to drive from the Chicago area to the Pacific Coast (Newport, OR) and back in 4 days. In order to save time and stay awake while driving long distances nonstop, I purchased iced coffee from a number of McDonalds. I am diabetic, so I first asked to speak to the managers, then asked them if there was any sugar in the iced coffee. They said there was none unless I added sugar. I received this same answer 3 times at 3 different McDonalds. I didn’t notice until I got out of the car at the end of my trip that my feet had swollen up like large ungainly hams. Turns out there is A LOT of sugar in the iced coffee (why I couldn’t taste it I can only attribute to fatigue). You would think when somebody identifies themselves as a diabetic and asks if there is sugar in something, if you weren’t absolutely sure, you would check.

My wife’s email complaint to McDonald’s received an email response that was basically a polite “f-you.”

I sympathize with your story, hossman. But there’s a big difference between pretending to know something you don’t and giving the best advice you can—as long as you admit that you don’t quite know what you’re talking about. People on Fluther generally qualify their answers appropriately, and that makes all the difference. You can have lots of useful insight without having a definitive answer. Just don’t pretend that your answer is definitive when it’s not.

I think we’re on the same page; I just wanted to qualify your answer.

OK, dokey, bob. You are correct we usually do qualify our answers appropriately, and I think it is pretty clear fluther isn’t holding itself out as an authoritative source. Now I have this nightmare of discovering some grad student is trying to figure out how to use APA or MLA citation to footnote to fluther as the primary source for their thesis.

There have been a few cases (myself certainly included) where the sarcasm-impaired may have misunderstood what we were saying.

I think the more time people spend here, the more they know how to treat our responses, as we quickly get a sense of the various approaches here. You also get a sense of various flutherians’ areas of expertise. You certainly wouldn’t want to take my advice on how to reformat Unix computer yada doohickey blah blah blah, and evidently gailcalled isn’t going to be our go to gal for tips on a truffle and pancetta saute. mirza probably isn’t going to be a great source for a history of Calvinism and predestination. What I find to be fun is the variety of personalities reflected in the responses and advice.

All of the above is why I stay here long past bedtime. At least now, I keep my dental floss at hand because I have discovered that I can read and floss at the same time. (How, however, to keep flying particles from embedding themselves in keyboard cracks is the next important question).

Sarcasm, or better, irony can be easily misinterpreted..thus the invention of the dreaded emoticons.

I can give a long and boring lecture in bad French on how to hunt a truffle (une truffe), if anyone is interested. But I learned how to cook during the “large slab of roasted meat, starch and a gray veggie” era. Never mind pancetta; how about Cream of Mushroom (la chanterelle) soup, canned french-fried onions (les oignons), canned pineapple (l’ananas) slices skewered into hams, cake mixes, Bisquik, ad nauseum.

My views on eating well have changed but Hoss has me pegged. (Have I been that transparent?)

What annoys me is the very occasional arrogance and pomposity…rare, thank heaven…and language so garbled that I haven’t a clue. OTOH, I would be delighted to have Davey as a son….he does this site proud. However, I wander, as is my wont.

I’m wondering why everyone thinks this question is exclusive to Fluther. I stated that I’ve been on many similar sites, right.

Gailcalled, the question WAS regarding BR, so that is the ONLY correct response!
I’m done here, seriously. Just tired ofseeibngf people give a positive rating to silly nonsense. As I said before, “I don’t know” was a great answer?

See ya, seriously. That’s not arrogance. Please excuse me for having sought a place where intelligent interaction is thse standard.

I’m sure Fluther can be a really cool site, but the community has to strive to make it that way. That’s clearly not on everyone’s mind here.

Best of luck, but it’s time for me to unsubscribe.

Thank goodness.

It must be lovely to go through life so sure of yourself, Joe. I’m sure you were merely slumming here, thus I’m sure some other, far more fortunate community will have the benefit of your cheery repartee. I’m sure it must have been quite disheartening to not have us all immediately recognize you with dozens of “Great Answers,” and I for one, extend to you my heartfelt apology you were not made to feel more special. I am sorry we have not sufficiently striven to be really cool for you. In fact, I abase myself prostrate before you for not asking “But what will JoeCsekoBrainBuilder think?” before I crafted each response. As to the “I don’t know” post above receiving a “Great Answer,” evidently the wit of that response, given the wording of your rather rude question, escapes you, leaving me little hope you’ll be able to fully appreciate this post. Of course, you could try to be polite in your own posts, but I guess that would be “too anal for some.”

And bob beats me again for brevity. By the way, Joe? Don’t go picking on gail. I suspect you would be bringing a knife to a gunfight.

Buh-bye.

Uh-oh. I suspect we are not adequately striving to be really cool. It’s clearly not on my mind, I suppose I foolishly thought I was innately, instinctively cool, rather than making an effort to attain coolness on the level of, say, a JoeCsekoBrainBuilder. Perhaps, as gail suggested, sarcasm or irony is being misinterpreted. This clearly is not a place where “intelligent interaction is THSE [sic] standard.”

Or as my kids would say: “Nah-nah, nah-nah boo-boo.”

And ModernClassic? Some of us do appreciate wit and subtlety. And sarcasm. And irony. And thank you.

@Joe; Pity. I was planning on polemics at twenty paces, w. hoss and bob as my seconds. (That’s irony, man.) Happy trails.

How about flamethrowers at 6 inches?

Too subtle.

Wit. Subtlety. Sarcasm. Irony. Moi?? My work here is done. I am complete.

because they want to get their answer ( or opinion ) in