Grub Manual

[Lamar Owen]

On Friday 19 October 2007, Jacques B. wrote:
> As for Karl's knowledge/expertise and accomplishments in other areas,
> I don't doubt it.  It has never been discussed because it is
> ultimately not relevant.  

Had I not done a little digging into Karl's area of expertise, I would find 
him quite annoying to the extreme (and I did, in fact, for some time).  Now 
that I know where he's coming from, I only find it slightly annoying.  I find 
the backlash against him far more annoying than I find him.

> Because that does not automatically make him 
> knowledgeable or an expert in the topics he is discussing on this
> list. 

Of course.

But what I found is that I don't think he considers himself an expert at all 
(correct me if I'm wrong, Karl); he's just trying to help in the way in which 
he's used to helping.

I am no expert auto mechanic either; however, I found a trick in removing and 
installing the power steering lines on a 1987 Ford Taurus that I bet is not 
in any of the manuals; should experienced auto mechanics automatically 
dismiss my attempts at describing a serious timesaver just because I don't 
use the 'correct' terminology?  (I did this myself; I didn't have a 
particular factory tool to remove one of the things the manual said I had to 
remove; it took me twelve hours to get the first line off without removing 
the hard-to-remove part, but fifteen minutes later I had the second line off, 
and both new lines on once I found the trick.  A dealer mechanic told me I 
was crazy, that there was no way.  I told him that I'd be glad to show him 
how I did it; he ridiculed the description of my method and said that it 
could not possibly work; so I went down and demonstrated to the assembled 
technicians at the dealership; jaws dropped when I did both lines in thirty 
minutes, and me not a mechanic....)

Being an expert does not automatically make somebody right; not being an 
expert doesn't make someone wrong, either, even if the terminology 
isn't 'correct.'  Correctness only counts if it is for communicating the 
concept; correctness just for correctness' sake is simply pedantic.
-- 
Lamar Owen
Chief Information Officer
Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute
1 PARI Drive
Rosman, NC  28772
(828)862-5554
www.pari.edu