The real thing you need to do is get over yourself. You're not special. There's lots of people in this world that are just as smart as you. Once you get over yourself, the world is your oyster. "unusually but non-traditionally 'bright' "...jesus...Kill me. Get over yourself.
The real thing you need to do is get over yourself. You're not special. There's lots of people in this world that are just as smart as you. Once you get over yourself, the world is your oyster. "unusually but non-traditionally 'bright' "...jesus...Kill me. Get over yourself.
Smart is not always what succeeds. There are plenty of stupid people that get far. Take Dufus in the Whitehouse for example. Few people would claim that he is an original thinker or highly knowledgable. On the other hand there are peo
Exactly. Smart is important but discipline more so. If you can't finish something, you'll never succeed at anything. And this "stick-to-it-ness" is what you'll learn in college (if you can finish it).
Why did I have to take 3 semesters of calculus, then 2 semesters of calc based stats, etc? Was it because all computer science folks need to know how to calculate volume under a curve?
No. It is to teach you how to think, how to stick with something and to finish it.
TENACITY! It's called tenacity! I swear, the next grade-school teacher who I hear use the word "stick-to-it-ive-ness" is getting a swift and painful English lesson.
Seriously! It's a syllable shorter! Let's do a comparison! (In list form, because Slashdot's support for preformatted text is bad.)
Is it a real word?
Tenacity: Yes, and a good one as well!
Sticktoitiveness: No, and it never will be.
How many syllables does it have?
Tenacity: Four. Rolls right off the tongue.
Sticktoitiveness: Five. It's an ungainly hippo-in-a-tutu of a word.
Does it make you sound like a Special Ed teacher when you use it?
Tenacity: Not in the least.
Sticktoitiveness: Yes, if not straight-up retarded.
Stamp out sticktoitiveness wherever you see it. It's the red-headed stepchild of the English language....
This has gotten really, really offtopic. I have a pet peeve; this was a point onto which I could latch. I don't really have an issue with you, just with the word.
It is not a word. It is at best a colloquialism. At worst it is a sentence with two grammatically incorrect suffixes glued to it like bumper stickers. A marketing committee added it to the dictionary, not a scholar of language.
Languages are defined by their users, not their scholars. The evolution of the way a language used can be summed up with the words "de facto," whether grammarnazis like it or not.
Do you really think folks care if a committee gets together to decide whether something may or may not be a word? I don't. If a word is used often enough by people, then it's a valid construction as a fait accompli.
Do you really think folks care if a committee gets together to decide whether something may or may not be a word? I don't.
Neither do I. I do care that it's an ugly word, constructed for no good reason. A better one already exists.
If a word is used often enough by people, then it's a valid construction as a fait accompli.
And yet using the word still makes you sound retarded. I really don't care how many people say 'bling-bling' either, for instance---it's a retarded word.
I won't go so far as to quote James Nicoll, but I will say that what's valid in a language is defined by the users, not by the textbooks. If enough people use a word, then sure, it's valid. "Ain't" is a perfectly valid word in English, even if some English professors with sticks up their asses would howl about the eroding purity of the Perfect Tongue.
Can anyone give the true form of this Simpsons quotation? Burns: Any questions? Skinner: Which is more important, ___ or stickatititude? Burns: Any _real_ questions?
You're right. "Stick-to-it-iveness" is just salesman-speak. It's the kind of nonsense business people come up with all the time -- making up words, or misusing words. (Take, for example, paradigm; or, a recent classified ad I saw: "Excite your career!")
Please -- give us all a break from that kind of nonsense!
This has gotten really, really offtopic. I have a pet peeve; this was a point onto which I could latch. I don't really have an issue with you, just with the word.
No offense taken. Actually, I find it funny that more attention went to the vocabulary than the idea in the post... but everyone apparently understood the meaning.;)
btw, I quoted "stick-to-it-ness" to ensure nobody would think it was a real word. Apparently it didn't work. (heh)
That's the problem with words like tenacity: they can't be understood by reference to English words of one syllable, so a large fraction of the American public will not understand them.
Try using "pecuniary" to the average college student. Or even "glutton". I once found someone working in a restaurant who did not know what "glutton" meant.
"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so."
-- Ford Prefect, _Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_
Advice (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Advice (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Advice (Score:4, Insightful)
Smart is not always what succeeds. There are plenty of stupid people that get far. Take Dufus in the Whitehouse for example. Few people would claim that he is an original thinker or highly knowledgable. On the other hand there are peo
Re:Advice (Score:5, Informative)
Exactly. Smart is important but discipline more so. If you can't finish something, you'll never succeed at anything. And this "stick-to-it-ness" is what you'll learn in college (if you can finish it).
Why did I have to take 3 semesters of calculus, then 2 semesters of calc based stats, etc? Was it because all computer science folks need to know how to calculate volume under a curve?
No. It is to teach you how to think, how to stick with something and to finish it.
TENACITY! (Score:5, Funny)
TENACITY! It's called tenacity! I swear, the next grade-school teacher who I hear use the word "stick-to-it-ive-ness" is getting a swift and painful English lesson.
Seriously! It's a syllable shorter! Let's do a comparison! (In list form, because Slashdot's support for preformatted text is bad.)
Stamp out sticktoitiveness wherever you see it. It's the red-headed stepchild of the English language.
This has gotten really, really offtopic. I have a pet peeve; this was a point onto which I could latch. I don't really have an issue with you, just with the word.
--grendel drago
Re:TENACITY! (Score:2, Informative)
Bzzt! [reference.com]
-PS
Re:TENACITY! (Score:1, Informative)
It is not a word. It is at best a colloquialism. At worst it is a sentence with two grammatically incorrect suffixes glued to it like bumper stickers. A marketing committee added it to the dictionary, not a scholar of language.
Re:TENACITY! (Score:2)
Do you really think folks care if a committee gets together to decide whether something may or may not be a word? I don't. If a word is used often enough by people, then it's a valid construction as a fait accompli.
Monkey words! (Score:2)
Neither do I. I do care that it's an ugly word, constructed for no good reason. A better one already exists.
If a word is used often enough by people, then it's a valid construction as a fait accompli.
And yet using the word still makes you sound retarded. I really don't care how many people say 'bling-bling' either, for instance---it's a retarded word.
--grendel drago
Re:TENACITY! (Score:2)
n. Informal
aka: We're including this non-word in the dictionary in case some jackass uses it and you don't know wtf they're trying to say.
Also included on the wonderful site you referenced:
aint [reference.com]
phattest [reference.com]
Aint my sticktoitiveness be the phattest in proving proper words?
Re:TENACITY! (Score:2)
I congratulate you ... (Score:2)
Sticktoitiveness... (Score:1)
Re:Sticktoitiveness... (Score:2)
Re:TENACITY! (Score:1)
Re:TENACITY! (Score:1)
Re:TENACITY! (Score:1)
You're right. "Stick-to-it-iveness" is just salesman-speak. It's the kind of nonsense business people come up with all the time -- making up words, or misusing words. (Take, for example, paradigm; or, a recent classified ad I saw: "Excite your career!")
Please -- give us all a break from that kind of nonsense!
Re:TENACITY! (Score:1)
Re:TENACITY! (Score:2)
Which, incidentally, is itself a made up word. :-)
(Or have I just fallen for a cunning and deliberate pun? :-/)
Re:TENACITY! (Score:1)
Re:TENACITY! (Score:2)
No offense taken. Actually, I find it funny that more attention went to the vocabulary than the idea in the post... but everyone apparently understood the meaning. ;)
btw, I quoted "stick-to-it-ness" to ensure nobody would think it was a real word. Apparently it didn't work. (heh)
Re:TENACITY! (Score:1)
Do your piles have Latin roots? (Score:2)
Try using "pecuniary" to the average college student. Or even "glutton". I once found someone working in a restaurant who did not know what "glutton" meant.