Originally posted by Sly
In the past I've never had enough interest in TSE to form much of an opinion on him, but having read this thread I can see some defining characteristics which I am confident can be found often when he posts:
1) Persistent negativity about the failures/stupidity of people and things around him
2) Persistent claims of his potential to achieve/accomplish/be perceived as/be much more than he has demonstrated thus far if only the right (highly improbable) situation occurred or if he was to be properly motivated (which he invariably is not)
3) Lack of ability to accede to personal imperfection or past faults, except in such cases where his imperfection is merely a lack of desire or motivation to demonstrate his potential to achieve/accomplish/be perceived as/be much more, per #2 above
4) Below average communication skills (which he explains by stating he isn't motivated enough to communicate well per #2 above)
5) Verbosity used to disguise lack of content
That said, I do recall a post he made earlier this season which was rather funny and clever, which leads me to believe that if he stays away from topics that involve him personally or any of his "theories", he might be pleasant even. He has some likable qualities when he gets beyond his persistent negativity about failures/stupidity of others/things around him and when he isn't almost desperately trying to convince others that he's intelligent. I think he would be able to become a lot more intelligent (and happy) if he was able to get comfortable with the fact that in most cases he's probably not the smartest guy in the forum (and more likely is only above average).
I don't have much hope this post will be understood well by him although I genuinely have no particular animosity towards him and at this point still have a reasonably positive perception of him. Although I've listed some things that will be seen as faults above, really they are just a set of habitual behaviors that he's fallen into and in many cases they do more harm to him than to anyone else, so I'm not offended by them (yet). I frequently love to push people's buttons on the Internet just to get predictable reactions from them but in this case I'm just trying to communicate.
Agreed. Fortunately I'm working on my skills of being a perfectionist. I expect to have this itemized list ironed out in the near future.
