Are you a Know-it-all?

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But then they'll never learn and they'll keep on making themselves look stupid. I see correcting mistakes as doing people a service, and I treat it as such when people correct my own mistakes too.

Been on both sides of this. Some people will appreciate if you help them out with a correction, some will not be able to handle it and look at you like your an A**.

Need to know your audience and who to correct and who not to. Also, some people can only learn by making mistakes and suffering through the consequences so sometimes it's a dis-service to correct them without letting them take the fall.

And sometimes you just can't help correcting because it's just too damn funny, like when my husband said "bear of bad new's" in an email instead of "Bearer of bad news". One of those things that you can't always hear it right and it was so funny to us that he'd always pictured a bear, as in the animal, bringing bad news. Again though, know your audience, I know I can tease him this way.

In real life, I don't come across as a know it all. But, on-line it's different. Just check out the race poll on here. I had to edit my thoughts quite dramatically. Otherwise I might have written an essay on why some of the other posts were total nonsense.

In fourth grade I was really obsessed with animals and my favourite school subject was science. I liked the teacher very much. Once he decided that we would start a "science olympic" based on 100 questions we had to answer at home. The next day he asked the questions in class and I supposed I that since I was the most enthusiastic about what we were talking about and I had answered all the questions at home I should answer in class, too, when he was reading them out loud. After a while my teacher screamed at me "YOU ARE NOT A COMPUTER!"
I tried to refrain after that.

Yes if its certain questions, then I am a know-it-all...

I have been called a control freak, I don't think I am just like to do things right and when I decided on something I have to do it my way and give it 100% plus. I have also been called a know all!

*you're

lol

Depends on what you consider to be information.

Assuming the cosmological principle holds and the rest of the universe isn't a giant hoax, then of all the information (like the world line of every particle ever), 0%. Obviously. The universe is f*****g huge. Of all the important information (like, say, all the interesting things out there that aren't just cold specks of dust, or plasma, or degenerate crap or singularities or whatever), 0%. Obviously. The universe is f*****g huge. Of all the vital information, it's difficult to say, but we know enough to describe the way the universe works to a reasonable approximation (only) for quite a large range of circumstances. I'm tempted to assign it a very high figure, but on ne sait jamais.

Or we can consider information particularly relevant to us: mankind (as a whole) knows almost everything important there is to know - at least as far as things which are obvious to our senses go - about mankind at present, a good outline of humanity's immediate past and a reasonable outline of humanity's history for a thousand years back, plus a sketchy outline of humanity's history for ten thousand years or so and a very rough outline for a few million, plus a loose history of life on Earth and a loose history of the state of our solar system for a few billion, plus a loose history of the general state of the universe for fourteen billion ish. We have a reasonable appreciation of the important stuff in the solar system, a reasonable appreciation of the more obvious stuff that's near us in the galaxy and a general appreciation of our galactic neighbourhood, plus a reasonable but largely out-of-date knowledge of anything spectacularly violent that's been going on around us in the universe.

It's more of an obsession with accuracy and truth. I think I can come off as a smug know-it-all, especially when I correct someone, but my intention isn't to show off my intelligence. If my facts or reasoning were wrong, I'd prefer to be corrected than continue to be wrong. I need to constantly remind myself that most people don't think this way, and I often forget and correct them anyway.

I enjoy exploring possibilities.




TheSunAlsoRises

LOL! I get cognitive problems with spelling, I'm one of the rare Aspies who has trouble with detail. But sometimes it's just typing too fast while dealing with a migraine as today has been. Why can't I just stay off the computer with a migraine? Damn special interest in meeting others that may have answers. lol.

btw, you're right by me, I'm near the Twin Cities.

I tend to do a lot of correcting, but only when I am absolutely positive I am correct. I am not doing anyone any favors by remaining silent and withholding information. I however do not like being correct by those that I perceive as less intelligent than me. This is egotistical in nature, I know.

I've learned to play dumb whenever possible. It works out better for me that way and besides most people hate it when another person knows something they don't.

I used to be that kid in school who knew the answer to every question. The teacher would call on everyone else except me. If no one else got it right the teacher would finally roll their eyes and call on me. They would eventually tell me to stop raising my hand.

By the time I was in the 4th grade, I would just sit there in class like a rock and not say anything because I knew the teachers didn't want me to answer questions. And everyone wondered why I got so quiet.

I've been accused of being a know it all on many occasions.
But as I have gotten older I have realized how little I really do know.
I just know a lot of random unrelated things.

I read constantly about a limited range of subjects.So if a conversation is about the particular areas I have an interest in ,I would speculate I could come across as a know it all.I have a lot of information about a very limited range of subjects and for the most part am quiet if conversations are not about the areas I am interested in but can be overbearing about topics I like.

I remember the first time I saw Barack Obama, I didn't think "wow, the first black president" or any of the traditional things people might think. I thought, "he's 47, I wonder how much information he's accumulated in those years". I have this insatiable appetite for information, a compulsion to literally know everything. I am defiant for no reason at all and oppose my teacher simply for the sake of opposition. I've had discussions with people that have gone on for 4 hours or more on the fallacy of religion, to then only say that I believe that religion, on a whole, is a positive thing in people's lives. What I'm after is not the triumph of defeating someone in "battle" but reaching, what I call, "The One Undying Truth." Some days I think I should have been a mathematician or something, but instead I'm studying Biology, Chemistry and Physics, and plan to study international relations, and public policy in the future. I've had a few teachers, I suspect are autistic, generally they have taught Chemistry, and we usually get along quite well. I think all their jokes are funny, when no one else laughs. What I find interesting is that the university system is essentially made for people like us. People that can accumulate large amounts of information in short amounts of time and then use that information to reach amazing conclusions about the world...or not.