What is your pet peeve of the day?

[NW-Bound]

People who come to this board and post that they have a net worth of 8+ million and no debt and asking if they have enough money to retire. Ah wait.... that might not be a pet peeve; that might be jealousy.

There may not be a need to envy them. They could be spending $400K/yr, hence had to work till they drop. No pity here either.

 

[aaronc879]

They will, you're right! When I drove a little Solara I used to get my tires changed every three years whether I needed them or not. My Venza came with the HUGE tires as part of the fancy upgraded package, though, and it is going to cost me a mint to replace them when the time comes. So, I have been putting that off.

It's nice to be retired with no commuting, and to live in a nice inner suburb where everything I need is close by.

Don't go too long. Tires can go bad even if the tread is still good. I think it's recommended to replace them before they reach 6 years old. That's 6 years from when they were manufactured not from when you bought them which could be many months later. There should be a 4 number code on your sidewall. The first two numbers are the week in the year that they were made. The last two numbers are the year they were made. So if the numbers are 1208 then they were manufactured on the 12th week of 2008 and are now over 6 years old and should be replaced.

 

[Midpack]

People who routinely go to great lengths to criticize the views of others WITHOUT offering any alternative solutions/POV of their own. Critical discussion is most welcome, but the two should go together IMHO. Any sentient being can pick apart the views of another, but if you don't have a better idea...

All the world's a critic...

 

[Bestwifeever]

There may not be a need to envy them. They could be spending $400K/yr, hence had to work till they drop. No pity here either.

And that $8 million might exist only in their wildest dreams.

 

[MichaelB]

People who routinely go to great lengths to criticize the views of others WITHOUT offering any alternative solutions/POV of their own. Critical discussion is most welcome, but the two should go together IMHO. Any sentient being can pick apart the views of another, but if you don't have a better idea...

All the world's a critic...

You're wrong, for so many reasons I can't even begin to list them here.
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jic

 

[REWahoo]

You're wrong, for so many reasons I can't even begin to list them here.

No he isn't.

 

[travelover]

No he isn't.

Yes he is and so are you.

 

[ERD50]

So many - one that I keep coming across is product reviews or articles where they give some vague relative statement rather than providing an actual number that would be sooooo much more informative. Some examples:


ABC State is last in XYZ measure.

Guess what? Someone will always will be last on a list. It doesn't tell me anything about whether there is even a significant difference between first and last - maybe it is 0.001%, or maybe it is a factor of 1000. Give me a NUMBER!​

Product reviews that use 'poor', 'fair', 'good', 'excellent' for things like electricity consumption on an appliance. Hey, an actual $ figure based on national averages would tell me more. I actually saw Consumer Reports rate a BIG refrigerator better than a small one in 'Energy Usage'. But when I looked into it, yes, the bigger one used far more energy than the small one. But to CR, it was efficient within that class of BIG refrigerators. Now, what if I'm trying to decide between big and small, and want to make the electricity usage one of my factors - this might lead me to the BIG one, thinking it uses less kWh rather than more.

I just read a car review, they compared it to others in its class, and said the braking distance was longer than model XYZ. Ummm, they had to look it up to know it was longer, how about giving me the number? Was it 6" longer, or 50 feet longer?

I know not everyone grasps numbers as easily as others, but there really is a time/place for a number. Include the descriptive language if you want, but give me the number if it is a straight numerical measurement!

-ERD50

 

[ERD50]

Oh, another one just came to mind. People who can't grasp that there is often a different skill set required to recognize a problem than there is to propose a solution to that problem!

Well, OK, it's not really a pet peeve, but I could help but notice this one and respond...

People who routinely go to great lengths to criticize the views of others WITHOUT offering any alternative solutions/POV of their own. Critical discussion is most welcome, but the two should go together IMHO. Any sentient being can pick apart the views of another, but if you don't have a better idea...

All the world's a critic...

Seriously, I can think of endless cases where a person can recognize that something is wrong, but may not have the skills/experience/time to propose a solution. Are you suggesting that they should not voice an opinion on the matter? I think most of the advances we have in the world were because someone first recognized a problem. Maybe they had no solution, maybe the awareness helped others to find a solution. Maybe they found a solution much later.

I honestly don't get why this would bother you.

Is every movie critic 'wrong' about every review, just because maybe they never directed and acted in an Oscar rated film? I think it's useful if they point out flaws, even w/o any suggestion as to how to make it better. A flaw is a flaw, tell me about it.

Are you saying that non-musicians can't say "I don't like that guitar player - he sounds bad to me" (about a truly bad guitar player), just because they can't play better themselves, or make suggestions on how the player could improve? They might not even have the vocabulary to describe what is 'bad' about their playing, even if they are right (as judged by experienced guitar players).

If not, what are you saying?

OTOH, if it is that person's responsibility, or at least within their power to improve the situation, I agree, they should act on it, and not just complain. But that's not always the case.

-ERD50

 

[W2R]

Don't go too long. Tires can go bad even if the tread is still good. I think it's recommended to replace them before they reach 6 years old. That's 6 years from when they were manufactured not from when you bought them which could be many months later. There should be a 4 number code on your sidewall. The first two numbers are the week in the year that they were made. The last two numbers are the year they were made. So if the numbers are 1208 then they were manufactured on the 12th week of 2008 and are now over 6 years old and should be replaced.

Thanks, Aaron. I'll check them. I didn't know that.

 

[pb4uski]

Pet peeve from yesterday: took car in for final "free" maintenance check. Turns out it was for 24 mos. or 25k miles, so was not free, but I suppose $19.95 isn't too bad for a tire rotation. Plus, they vacuumed my car.

Anyway, cheap-azz OEM tires will need replaced soon. Dealer rep shows me some options, then proceeds to tell me I "need" a four-wheel alignment for $120. Granted, I was planning on buying tires from Costco, plus I know the guy was doing his "j*b" trying to up-sell me, but what really happened is they lost my business for good. Four-wheel alignment at 25k miles? Thing drives straight as an arrow, no weird wear on tires, no reason but to sell some gullible sucker something they don't need. Too bad for them...

Around here if you buy four new tires they frequently will throw in an free alignment. Sometimes they offer it up but if they don't and you ask for it they will frequently relent.

 

[drb391]

My pet peeve for quite a while has been folks that use the center, left-turn lane to turn into, then merge right into traffic. thought it was illegal til I googled it and found it's ok, in about 30, I think, states. can only drive 3-400 ft after turning into it. hmmph.. doesn't mean I have to like it

 

[samclem]

My pet peeve for quite a while has been folks that use the center, left-turn lane to turn into, then merge right into traffic. thought it was illegal til I googled it and found it's ok, in about 30, I think, states. can only drive 3-400 ft after turning into it. hmmph.. doesn't mean I have to like it

Ooops, sorry. I do that if there's a lot of traffic--waiting for simultaneous breaks in traffic both ways could take a very long time. I'll admit it's scary to be coming the other way and not know if the "turner" will be going to that center lane or right across.

 

[Midpack]

Group 1: Anyone can criticize, some more constructively than others, but they always have a voice. By far the largest group, with the least to offer collectively. Again, 'all the world's a critic.'

Group 2: Someone who can at least articulate a solution or alternative is significantly more credible than someone who can only criticize IMHO - it's that simple. Intellectually more of an effort than just 'recognizing problems' - at least the source has challenged themselves to think through alternatives. Weighing alternatives and ideas leads to solutions more often.

Group 3: There's a reason society rewards and recognizes innovators who find a way to make things better, and not simply the countless critics. The innovators are by far the most uncommon among us. I can't think of anyone significant who's been rewarded in a meaningful way for only 'recognizing problems' and criticizing the status quo.



While they're indeed called movie critics, there's a difference between a critique (what movie critics engage in) and criticism. And a difference in personal taste isn't the same as criticism either, even though some people "value their tastes" over others and criticize the tastes of others. critique

 

[ERD50]

Group 1: Anyone can criticize, some more constructively than others, but they always have a voice. By far the largest group, with the least to offer collectively. Again, 'all the world's a critic.'

Group 2: Someone who can at least articulate a solution or alternative is significantly more credible than someone who can only criticize IMHO - it's that simple. Intellectually more of an effort than just 'recognizing problems' - at least the source has challenged themselves to think through alternatives. Weighing alternatives and ideas leads to solutions more often.

Group 3: There's a reason society rewards and recognizes innovators who find a way to make things better, and not simply the countless critics. The innovators are by far the most uncommon among us. I can't think of anyone significant who's been rewarded in a meaningful way for only 'recognizing problems' and criticizing the status quo.



While they're indeed called movie critics, there's a difference between a critique (what movie critics engage in) and criticism. And a difference in personal taste isn't the same as criticism either, even though some people "value their tastes" over others and criticize the tastes of others. critique

OK, I don't really disagree with any of that. But to me, that's a long way from the idea that someone who might criticize something w/o offering a solution is upsetting to the point of being a 'pet peeve'.

In fact, after thinking on this a while, I've decided on a full 180 from your stance, and I will say that people who don't complain, regardless of whether they can offer a solution or not, are a 'pet peeve' of mine!

The reason being, complaints drive companies, governments, or any responsible party, to action. If say, no one complained about an important web site being slow and crashing, would it have gotten enough attention to push for fixes? Likely not as much. Yet, probably 99.9% of the people accessing that web site were not technical enough to suggest any solution at all. And those with some technical expertise were not privy to the internal workings to suggest fixes. But the complaints help drive improvements.

So yes, my pet peeve is people who don't complain - without enough complainers, progress slows, and I don't want the complainers to be limited to only those with suggestions for improvement.

Here's a recent personal example. I'm talking to my Mom, and she starts complaining that her computer is really, really slow, a lot of beach ball spinning. She has nothing to offer in terms of a fix. So are you saying she should not complain?

Well, her complaint got me thinking - she normally 'sleeps' her computer rather than shut it down. So I asked how long it had been since she did a full re-start. She really didn't know the difference, but after a while, memory fragments don't get de-allocated, and the computer is forced to use swap space which is really, really slow. So she restarts it, and Ala-Kazaam!, her computer is running hundreds of times faster.

So she was wrong to complain w/o a solution? I should be upset with her? That I just don't get.

-ERD50

 

[HFWR]

Yes he is and so are you.

Neener neener!

 

[Payin-the-Toll]

Oops---looks like the pet peeve thread is turning into a forum rant.

 

[John Galt III]

Yeah, but he was probably hoping for somebody like me. I probably would have gone for it. I love knowing for sure that my wheels are absolutely perfectly aligned. I guess I "have a thing" about wheel alignment. I'd rather get my wheels aligned when they didn't need it, than not get them aligned when they did.

I still have my OEM tires after 4+ years and 15,700 miles or so. No alignments, yet, but I probably need one. Had to have a few holes plugged (there are a lot of roofing nails on the street here from time to time).

I used to be obsessed with wheel alignment. The thought of grinding my tires away every day due to misalignment drove me crazy. I even paid for a lifetime alignment contract from Sears, and used it at least 7 times during the life of that car.

What I noticed though, was that even with frequent alignments, the tires on the front always wore out on the outside edges (sometimes inside and outside) before anywhere else, and I'd fail inspection due to just the edge being low.

Another interesting thing was that the factory specs called for the tires to be set so that it was "out of alignment" meaning the wheels were supposed to be tilting in/out and left/right slightly anyway !

Nowadays I never get an alignment, since the tires wear out on the edges first anyway. If I ever hit a huge pothole and the car starts pulling to one side, I would, though.

 

[travelover]

Neener neener!

 

[easysurfer]

My pet peeve of the day is family members who try to delegate tasks to other family members for gatherings.

 

[HFWR]

My pet peeve of the day is family members who try to delegate tasks to other family members for gatherings.

Mine is somewhat opposite. I go on a houseboat outing every years with some folks from my hometown. Every year, without fail, a "select" few do all the cooking and clean-up, while the rest sit on their keisters.

 

[easysurfer]

Mine is somewhat opposite. I go on a houseboat outing every years with some folks from my hometown. Every year, without fail, a "select" few do all the cooking and clean-up, while the rest sit on their keisters.

In my situation, the past winter, we had a family gathering (meet at a restaurant type of deal). Important to meet as we are all getting up there in age. Plus, it was sort of a goodbye for one member who retired and moved many states away. Unfortunately, not everyone was able to make it to the gathering because a snow storm hit the day before.

So over the past few days I get a call from a brother hinting about how nice it would be to have another gathering around the summer. This is from a brother who doesn't check his email or seldom gets on Facebook. And he goes "oh, and the gathering should be around his birthday", then goes on to ask about the food served at the place since his wife likes food prepared a certain way.

Since I organized the gathering last time, instead of saying "Can you do it?" I get the hint, hint feeling. All the time I say to him, "You should get on your email and Facebook more often." Finally I tell him should look at his calendar to make sure he can make it on the days he's thinking about, then float an email around the family about a gathering

 

[ls99]

I found one. Seems a lot of papers have a list of "five things to know" or ten or some number. I never read them, just the headline is annoying enough.

 

[pb4uski]

My pet peeve of the day is family members who try to delegate tasks to other family members for gatherings.

Are we related?

 

[easysurfer]

Are we related?

You too, I see