And as for WoW, no – it’s not mandatory to have a healer, but they are very much appreciated since they’re tough to play (they level slowly and everyone blames them when things go wrong) and good ones are hard to find. Lots of responsibility involved, as opposed to just standing there and hitting things.

Doesn’t real authority come from having had the experience of getting back up from defeat/failure, resilient in the face of criticism? Who can claim victory without ever having tasted mud, bearing in mind ‘victory’ depends on what, more than ‘who’ we perceive as the enemy? Mastery of self is usually the desired outcome for any martial combat, which that guy still has to comprehend…

You don’t have a boss’s office mate!…Do you?

I would venture that you and your loud friend don’t have any arguments because one of you is not trying to be an Authority…because one of you has an ego that is standing happily on it’s own 2 feet and is not desperately seeking the approval/submission of others or relying on others for it’s identity and/or strength; because one of you has actual experience, knows it and has nothing to prove?

It’s like mixing fire and water…you just get steam and that can drive turbines.

But when there is fire and fire, you get fire engines and insurance forms and black sooty stuff and boss’s offices

Onya mate…:-)

Cheers

Stephen G

Steven: Love the comparison of television and studying as wastes of time! If nothing else, WoW is a wonderful place for studying human nature: on my in-game friends list I presently have two people who are both very interesting, polite and friendly. One’s 12 years old, the other’s in his 30s – but they both express themselves in similar fashion and are both intelligent individuals. Compare that to the above-mentioned idiot and it’s a bit of an eye-opener.

Stephen: Putting “extroverts” together is never a good idea, as they have a tendency to lean toward “big-headed big-mouths”. Your mate’s situation sounds very much like that: two people who assume they are an authority because they have a loud voice and express themselves openly. When disagreements occur, they are loud, violent and messy.

Another example for you: someone I know is opinionated and mostly considered an authority because he talks louder than everyone else and verbally batters them into submission. If I disagree with something he says, it is calmly, quietly and stubbornly – yet we have no arguments because we both know we’re expressing opinions and we accept that there is no “100% truth”. A much better way to be – and one that wouldn’t get either of us dragged into a boss’s office!!

You spelled ‘authoritaar’ rong ;-P

Had a mate o’ mine telling me about an office experience the other day.

There’s a new ‘chick’ in his office. He took an instant (no doubt Karmic), dislike to her.

A few days after her arrival, they’re in an NLP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming), workshop. They did a couple of laps around the Myer Briggs Test (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator ), and ended up in groups by personality type. He and she in the ‘Extrovert’ group.

Anyway, they’re all talking at once, of course, and this ‘chick’ is saying stuff to my mate. He took offense and ended up telling her to shut the ____ up! Of course she in turn took offense, and started quoting Human Rights Statutes etc…

Anyway, they both ended up in the boss’s office. Of course my mate was getting told that he has to lift his game. To keep the peace he apologised.

Interesting thing is this – He felt victimised because the expectation was that he should change. He made the observation that he could not be responsible for how said ‘chick’ perceived what he was saying and that she chose to see what he said negatively…Hmmm! Where does that one end? Or better yet, where did it begin?

It would appear that Authority, Experience and Ego are not mutually exclusive? :-p

I reckon if people didn’t say anything unless they knew what they were talking about, we could hear a pin drop on Mars?

It’s like asking folks to be responsible for their thoughts, feelings and actions…it’s a big ask and it makes crap TV

Folks talk about the miracle of life…I reckon the miracle is that we haven’t blown ourselves up already

Great post as usual Cobba

Cheers

Stephen G

But to go back to your WoW thing: if being at level 80 is that person’s only source of pride, let him have it. If he or she needs to be boastful of it, quickly they might find they are without friends – or that their friends are equally deprived of good sense and etiquette.