Life in the NE US, third part: curiosity and sharing informations
Men, both young and adults, in the NE US, are considerably less curious than they are in Sardinia. It took a while for me to get adjusted to this difference. At the same time I have the impression that when I ask for informations that aren't related to work I get, generally speaking, less detailed answers than the ones I would get in Sardinia. These are my theories on why.
The most important reason, in my opinion, is that here in the US information forms a system which is valuable. More precisely, a well co-ordinated knowledge of many things is necessary in order to orient oneself in society and in the work environment, therefore the transmission and sharing of information is regarded as work in itself; and, beyond this, sharing information requires an investment in time and energy which are subtracted from other activities at work; and furthermore most single items of this information "system" make sense only when they are considered together with all of the other items in the system, so no-one is going to gain from the transmission of a single item to someone that is not oriented over the rest.
Well, that is not to say that a person in Sardinia may work without knowing anything at all, but my feeling is that there is a difference in the complexity of the information to be dealt with.
There is also a second reason that is connected to the first but is, let us say, less noble. Silence is often displayed as a sign of shrewdness, experience and general good orientation in life; in addition, it is displayed as a message that says: "I do not need to have to do too much with the people that are around me right now because I have other more important links and things in my life". On the other hand curiosity is an admission of ignorance, that is many times made most evident by the naivety of the question itself. In fact, it is often young adults, especially men, which remain silent.
Sometimes a curious effect is reached when the practice of not sharing informations has become an ingrained habit and it collides with another custom, the one of being attentive and considerate towards people. It has happened to me three or four times (and this only in the US I would say) to talk to someone at a social gathering and they showed an intensely interested expression, almost fixating their eyes into me while I was talking to them and nodding some times; after this, they responded with some generic information, which was pretty disappointing.
The most important reason, in my opinion, is that here in the US information forms a system which is valuable. More precisely, a well co-ordinated knowledge of many things is necessary in order to orient oneself in society and in the work environment, therefore the transmission and sharing of information is regarded as work in itself; and, beyond this, sharing information requires an investment in time and energy which are subtracted from other activities at work; and furthermore most single items of this information "system" make sense only when they are considered together with all of the other items in the system, so no-one is going to gain from the transmission of a single item to someone that is not oriented over the rest.
Well, that is not to say that a person in Sardinia may work without knowing anything at all, but my feeling is that there is a difference in the complexity of the information to be dealt with.
There is also a second reason that is connected to the first but is, let us say, less noble. Silence is often displayed as a sign of shrewdness, experience and general good orientation in life; in addition, it is displayed as a message that says: "I do not need to have to do too much with the people that are around me right now because I have other more important links and things in my life". On the other hand curiosity is an admission of ignorance, that is many times made most evident by the naivety of the question itself. In fact, it is often young adults, especially men, which remain silent.
Sometimes a curious effect is reached when the practice of not sharing informations has become an ingrained habit and it collides with another custom, the one of being attentive and considerate towards people. It has happened to me three or four times (and this only in the US I would say) to talk to someone at a social gathering and they showed an intensely interested expression, almost fixating their eyes into me while I was talking to them and nodding some times; after this, they responded with some generic information, which was pretty disappointing.
posted by JTS at
Thursday, August 16, 2007
1 Comments:
I definitely agree about shyness versus question asking. All of the most effective scientists I know are relentless about asking questions, whether or not they risk looking foolish.
That said, most of them do it too aggressively. Like a kid that keeps asking "Why?", they basically refuse to take any explanation at face value. Which at some point will embarrass or anger their subject. Their professional advantage is a social handicap.
I seem to recall some guys who fit this category (cough, RWB & JHE). It annoys me when someone interrupts a talk to ask a question whose answer they probably realize by the time they finished asking it. There's an element of just liking to hear one's own voice in that.
My rule is that you should try to think of the answer for about 5 minutes before you ask, and if you don't know after that, then you have to ask. Or Google.
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Mike Beversluis, at 16 August, 2007 20:31
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