Poll: Curmudgeons - Nature or Nurture?

[haha]

American English not being my first language I had never heard of a curmudgeon until I joined this site, and had to look it up. I usually equate ill-tempered with angry.

Intersting. Here is a short historical survey of meanings and possible derivations. It seems to be largely a mystery.

The Mavens' Word of the Day

Here is a blog by a man who is not only not angry, but gay, and a self described curmudgeon:

The Gay Curmudgeon

Ha

 

[Alan]

Intersting. Here is a short historical survey of meanings and possible derivations. It seems to be largely a mystery.

The Mavens' Word of the Day

Ha

Thanks Ha, very interesting, and mysterious

 

[haha]

Alan, a very cool mysterious character!

Ha

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

One other thing, it takes no sklls at all to be grumpy. It takes some real intelligence and usually some learning from others and from life to be a curmudgeon.

See, I feel that I've raised grumpery to an art form.

Don't give up dude, I'm sure you could improve on your grumpiness as well. Work on it a little bit.

 

[FIREd]

This guy gotta rank pretty high in the curmudgeon world:

The Problem with Young People Today Is…

 

[REWahoo]

This guy gotta rank pretty high in the curmudgeon world:

The Problem with Young People Today Is…

How did you stumble across my blog?

 

[FIREd]

How did you stumble across my blog?

I thought it was unclemick's.

 

[Alan]

Great link FIRE'd. I think that guy must be from Yorkshire.

When I was a boy, people didn’t have time for humor. We were too busy wiping the smirk off Hitler’s face to concern ourselves with mindless tittering and idle guffaws. For us, laughter was like shoe laces or smallpox vaccines – nice to have but not a luxury most of us could afford.

 

[audreyh1]

Great link FIRE'd. I think that guy must be from Yorkshire.

That quote got me too! Wow! To have the mentality that laughter must be rationed and in tiny doses too........

 

[NW-Bound]

Read the rest of his blog post though. This man was making a distinction between "classy" jokes of the old days and the tasteless vulgar humor of today.

 

[FIREd]

Don't take it too literally, it's a satire.

 

[Alan]

That quote got me too! Wow! To have the mentality that laughter must be rationed and in tiny doses too........

Read the rest of his blog post though. This man was making a distinction between "classy" jokes of the old days and the tasteless vulgar humor of today.

A couple of years ago we were visiting a WW II museum in England and they had a section devoted to cartoons during the war. It was great to see that folks could still appreciate humor in the worst of circumstances.

 

[KingB]

I was a curmudgeon until I retired.

 

[unclemick]

Curmudgeons ae not necessarily angry, and angry people are not necessarily curmudgeons. Look at the occupy movement. Are they curmudgeons? Look at the violent anti-abortionists. Are they curmudgeons?

In fact, it seems that most people mellow out with age. Young people are always full of ideals that they would really really like others to live up to. Old people know that is a lost cause, so they give up on it.

One other thing, it takes no sklls at all to be grumpy. It takes some real intelligence and usually some learning from others and from life to be a curmudgeon.

Ha

Absolutely. Yes! 10/4. I thought and still do that Curmudgeonism takes training and hard work.



heh heh heh - and it's a terrific hobby to take up in retirement. Way better than golf - especially after watching guys throw their club into the water after the ball and other forms of distemper.

 

[NW-Bound]

I happen to agree with the "curmudgeon" brought up by Fired that humor does not need the use of cursing words, name calling, and excessive profanity.

Yes, like anything else, humor can be classy or crude.

 

[HFWR]

You never heard Bud Abbot calling President Roosevelt a “douchebag” or poking fun at the Lindbergh baby. You never heard Jack Benny talk about smoking amphetamines or “bumpin’ uglies” with the Andrews Sisters. Those men had class – and they understood that if they crossed a line we’d beat them senseless with a sack of righteous indignation faster than you could say Fatty Arbuckle or The First Amendment.

Exactly...

 

[imoldernu]

A long time ago, Curmudgeon was my username on both Yahoo, and AOL... Early 1990's for AOl... maybe 1996. Yahoo name, later was Curmudgeon1... BTW... on AIM, I was also Bob1. old!

Am not a curmudgeon in the dictionary sense of the word, but more of an impatient know-it-all when I realize I am more knowledgeable than most people that I talk to or correspond with... so "curmudgeon" for me is "Impatient" more than "Bad Tempered".

It's not really arrogance... I don't often show the impatience, but it's hard to read or listen to those things that I know to be twisted or wrong. The humility is fake, but necessary to be part of society.

So the question? Nature or nurture? Hmm... I suppose nature that provides the curiosity that gets one to the point of using basic intelligence to learn and store the knowledge.

... But then this isn't an answer to the original question, but my own take on the term... Perhaps "Fake Humble Curmudgeon".

 

[braumeister]

The most curmudgeonly guy I ever knew (he was in his 30s at the time) had such a reputation that the nameplate on his desk had his name, then "Department Skeptic".

The department head thought his attitude was so useful that the policy was that all new proposals had to get him to buy in before the department head would consider them.

It was actually a useful ploy, and nobody really minded, since the curmudgeon was pretty fair about it. He gave the new ideas a fair hearing, and probably OK'd as many as he shot down.

 

[NW-Bound]

Talk about how older people tend to be impatient with youngsters because they have more life experiences and knowledge than the latter, I remember this older engineer, one of my bosses actually.

This man was as old as my late father, well respected, and had a fairly high position in the megacorp. He was a few levels above me, but remained very technical instead of becoming an administrator. He had wide experiences in many areas, and that came from many decades of working so many different programs.

As I worked under him for a few years, I learned a lot from him. But as time went on, and as I spent more time studying some problems that I worked independently on (we were an R&D group), I slowly discovered that I started to know more about what I worked on than he did.

And then, along with the discovery that some of my boss's technical prenotions were plainly wrong, I observed that his political views were also distorted. He made up his mind on many subjects, and no longer opened to new information or ideas that would refute what he thought he knew.

So, it kind of made sense. A man who is stubborn on technical matters that can be proven mathematically and empirically would be even more stubborn on matters that are harder like politics and philosophy.

Though I still respected the man, I told myself not to fall into the same trap, and to keep my mind open. It may be tougher said than done, but if one does not keep reminding himself that one might just be wrong, what hope is there of seeing the light?

Of course, a person with a shut mind would be quite happy with himself, because he was always right. Then, I guess it does not really matter for him. But I still like to find the truth, if that is ever possible.

 

[ShortInSeattle]

DH and I were just talking about this. We attended our first "investment update" hosted by our brokerage and most of the attendees were 30-40 years our senior. There was a small subset of curmudgeons who seemed to relish the Q&A as a chance to argue and gripe in front of a captive audience.

DH said "I don't understand how people can be wise and have all this life experience, and at the same time be so closed minded." Indeed.

Likewise, my elderly father in law seems to get grumpier by the year, complaining about dogs that stop to sniff his car tires and children that laugh "noisily".

I'm sure there are plenty of young grumps too. Perhaps they are getting it all out on social media.

I tend to avoid curmudgeons of all ages. Negativity is contagious.

I do like a bit of snark or sarcasm however. There is a world of difference between a fun bit of snark and someone who finds fault with everything.

SIS

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

The most curmudgeonly guy I ever knew (he was in his 30s at the time) had such a reputation that the nameplate on his desk had his name, then "Department Skeptic".

The department head thought his attitude was so useful that the policy was that all new proposals had to get him to buy in before the department head would consider them.

It was actually a useful ploy, and nobody really minded, since the curmudgeon was pretty fair about it. He gave the new ideas a fair hearing, and probably OK'd as many as he shot down.

I had the same kind of guy working for me at my last job. Someone would talk about something and I'd say "So Don, whats wrong with it?". If he couldn't come up with something, it was a good plan.

 

[braumeister]

I think I used to be kind of a curmudgeon, but I pretty much cured myself of it (AFAIK). Back when I was writing a regular column for the local newspaper, I realized that negative comments could have a serious effect on someone's business, so I adopted the policy of only talking about positive things, simply omitting mention of products or places I disliked for any reason.

After a few years, it got to be a habit, and I think I've maintained that attitude. The old saw "If you can't say something good, don't say anything." is a great rule to live by, IMHO.

 

[veremchuka]

Not sure on the nature vs. nurture question, but I like this description from How to be a Curmudgeon:

Quote:
...the curmudgeon is a mature person who has taken the time and intellectual effort to reflect upon and critique the world and the way it is constituated and has concluded that, given half a chance, they could run things a heck of a lot better.

Have you ever seen TV commercials trying to get you to part with your savings and invest in some stock or commodity? The tag-end of the thing says, “Past performance is not a guarantee of future returns.” The curmudgeon knows that past performance is about all you got to go on. When people say, “Things are different today,” the curmudgeon knows that the medicine show might be new but they’re sellin’ the same old snake oil.

In short, a curmudgeon is a realist of the highest order, not only seeing things the way they are, but the way they have been and most likely the way they’re gonna be.

I voted #1.

That pretty much sums up the world. I am a realist of the highest order and extremely logical and it is difficult to live in this world full of idiots and morons. I'm not sure if we are born this way or if the weight of the world crushes your spirit and you turn into one. It is interesting to see that so many of us are introverts, INTJ or ISTJ types, save enough to RE and are curmudgeons too! I've found my people!

 

[haha]

I think I used to be kind of a curmudgeon, but I pretty much cured myself of it (AFAIK). Back when I was writing a regular column for the local newspaper, I realized that negative comments could have a serious effect on someone's business, so I adopted the policy of only talking about positive things, simply omitting mention of products or places I disliked for any reason.

After a few years, it got to be a habit, and I think I've maintained that attitude. The old saw "If you can't say something good, don't say anything." is a great rule to live by, IMHO.

Especially good when it comes to dealing with women.

However, it is a terrible way to think if you are an active investor, or even semi-active, as in not comatose. And sometimes the way you speak sneaks into the way you think, and you lose that useful skill of of never saying what you really think, or worse yet, believing the bs you say.

Ha

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

believing the bs you say.

Now, if you believe your own BS, and you're happy...whats the problem?