People Who Take Everything Literally/Can't Think About Stuff

[Boozy]

I run into literal-minded people all over the Internet, and rarely in real life.

I recently had some pedantic little prick strike up a conversation with me at work. I asked him if he was active on any Internet forums. He named half a dozen.

Something about the Web makes people act like this, or perhaps appeals to those that already do.

Of course, I like the Internet too, and I don't feel that I'm like that. Just seems more common here than in real life.

[Imprl59]

I have a very good friend like this. Whatever is written is taken literally and he has no ability to figure out what was actually meant. He's an extremely intelligent guy and this drives me nuts too. He's always e-mailing me things to tell him what they really mean. Calls me his red neck to north eastern translation service.

[Andara Bledin]

I don't. I once watched a woman (heavily autistic, but functional) take nearly 30 minutes to stop trying to pay for something that was being given to her for free. I've always wondered if she'd have been good if he'd just told her it was $0.

^-.-^

[kiwi]

I find it hard to believe that someone who works at a transit centre where their job is selling items relating to transit all day everyday who is asked for something Bus related can't figure out what I was asking for. I used the key words bus, monthly, 1 zone everything but the word Pass.

If she couldn't figure it out from that, she shouldn't be working there. It's not like I asked for a bus pass and she was working at a Zoo in a town with no bus system.

[Andara Bledin]

To be honest, your example isn't very good. While I know of the case, the name "Casey Anthony" means exactly jack squat to me, and likely the majority of other people without further context. Plus, "anythong" is a damned funny typo.

Besides, as has been mentioned in other threads, other people don't read minds, and none of them are coming from the same point of reference as you, so what you think is obvious means pretty much nothing.

I had a GM who had laid out a game plan and littered it with what he thought were blindingly obvious clues to get the players moving in the right direction. It took five full sessions before he had to add a plot device to push us in the right direction because what was obvious to him, who has all of the data, meant absolutely jack squat to any of the six other people who were trying to figure it out.

You know what you're trying to say. You shouldn't expect other people to know what you're trying to say when you fail to take the care to actually say it correctly. As one of my bosses likes to spout, communication is the responsibility of the sender. While I don't fully agree with that, that's where it starts.

Other situations, where you swap out for a similar verb, or you typo a common adjective, on the other hand, is another matter entirely.

"ohhhhh you want a bus PASS, you said bus ticket!"

Could also be a bit autistic. How you say something can make a huge difference, even when it's just one word that should be fairly obvious.

^-.-^

[kiwi]

When I first moved to Canada I had to go by a monthly bus pass.

I asked for a monthly 1 zone bus ticket. The person selling them looked at me like I had two heads. It took a solid 5 minutes of explanation of the fact I wanted a ticket for the bus that was good for a month for 1 zone with me coming up with every possible word for month long bus blank...before the dim light above her head went on.

"ohhhhh you want a bus PASS, you said bus ticket!"

*facepalm* no shit sherlock you couldn't figure that out from the fact I wanted some form of item that would get me on the bus that was valid for a month. Not the biggest stretch in the world. The worst part, she worked at a skytrain station that had a bus depot at the same station, it's not like she worked in an area totally removed from transit. She sold bus PASSES all freaking day long.

I really do wonder if people are deliberately obtuse or just really stupid.

[Greenday]

Mainly what I'm talking about is when I make a typo and they have to say, "What does X mean?/What do you mean by X?" Christ! Just look at what I typed, see what doesn't make sense, then use your damn brain and think about it for five seconds as to that it could be a mistake and figure out what I meant to say. The response "Well, I'm/we're not mind readers" to me means "I'm too lazy to use my brain for a couple of seconds."

Example:

"ugh they are back to this casey anythong shit"
"and what is casey anythong? lol"
"casey anthony"
"oh"

There is no excuse for not being able to come up with that one letter typo. Especially for someone who works for a newspaper and probably sees this shit every day. Why is it so hard for people to put effort into thinking what a person could have meant instead of just taking everything literally when something obviously doesn't make sense?