frustrations of a plebeian (2)

[continue rant]

My last post, via the computer-use-in-meetings anecdote, is an example of how Mr. D is frustrating to somebody (myself) who gets peeved about almost any kind of idiotic computer use. There are also, however, ways in which he projects his incompetence to any and all people in his presence.

When somebody asks Mr. D a clarifying question, he is often unable to understand what the question is really asking. Mr. D ends up trying to dumb down his response every time the question is re-asked, since he feels the other person must be mentally handicapped if they aren't understanding his explanation. Here's a typical example...

Mr D: "Please measure the width of these boxes."
Person 2: "Okay. Do you want width from front to back or from right to left?
Mr. D: "Width is the linear distance between two, opposite sides of an object."
Person 3: "Yes, but that distance is different depending on which sides you pick."
Mr. D: "If you take the total volume of a cube, and take the third root of it, you'll get the width."
Persons 2 and 3: [under their breath] "We're going to ignore you and/or scream now. Okay?"

Of course, the incompetence doesn't stop there. Mr D is totally unable to think on his feet or carry on a constructive argument/discussion. Let's say he has prepared for a meeting by charting the defect rate of widgets over time. Now, imagine that somebody in the meeting suggests that it might be more insightful to view the defect rate as a function of production volume. At this point, Mr. D is likely to wig out. He'll get flustered and irritated, completely unable to function usefully. He /could/ spend a minute or two rearranging things to create the charts that were suggested, but because he sucks with computers (as seen in the last post) and is wigging out, he'll attempt to recreate everything from scratch and waste 20 minutes in the process, all while muttering to himself: "Dammit, I should have done it that way from the start. Sorry, everyone, just let me redo this entire spreadsheet." You can never tell who he's yelling at: himself, the person who suggested the change, or both.

[/rant]