Anybody else encounter tech arrogance?

[Ojai Diver]

I think the transformation process is interesting. If there's any psychologists out there, perhaps they can comment.

I had a friend in high school who was already showing some nascent annoying tendencies but with whom I enjoyed a good friendship. Then around age 17 he went off to Boy Scout leader training in Philmont, New Mexico and came back as the full-fledged narcissist he is today. Before we’d go camping all the time, but when he came back nobody could pitch a tent, build a fire or do the simplest tasks without his overbearing authoritarian input. And this insufferable attitude soon spread to every activity and facet of his life. Nobody who knew him before now wants to be around him – and it all started with his personality type and a summer of Boy Scout training.

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing with the wrong person.

 

[tomfcrist]

... of course, they paid six times more for their tank fills than you did ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Only because they are allergic to welding gas....

 

[TMHeimer]

Haven't read most of the posts. Will just say that quite a few of the instructors I assisted were also tech. divers and none behaved in the manner of your guy.

 

[Rred]

He laid down the law.

I think I saw that guy, yeah, dressed up as a dominatrix in a CIS Las Vegas episode a couple of years ago, wasn't it?

Does he do voiceovers for car navigation systems too? "YOU WILL MAKE A RIGHT IN ONE HUNDRED YARDS, OR ELSE!"

 

[chillyinCanada]

Thanks @chillyinCanada : Fun can be a tough training standard to achieve, but I bet you’re pretty expert at it yourself ;-)

Blush . . . I try

 

[Neilwood]

Depends on where you live, I suspect. Up here we had TSandM and a handful of other prominent GUE and UTD trained divers who turned out to be super nice people. They took leadership roles as well as being role models to remind everyone that the whole point of diving was to have fun ... and that's way easier to do when the whole community can play together. This is one of my favorite pictures of three local divers ... two tech-trained and one fairly new recreational diver ... playing together. We had over 60 divers in the water that day, representing probably every agency that trains scuba divers in the Pacific Northwest, and everybody had a great time ...

View attachment 457836

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I still remember a lot of the posts from TSandM who was probably one of the nicest people I have corresponded with (just wish I had had a chance to meet her). She ended up diving with some of the leaders of GUE and her post about it is one I always try to remember when things get annoying - she ended up "dancing" underwater with Jarred Jablonski (the link is here). As she noted, even the "gurus" weren't perfect but had fun.

Even at the extreme end of this wonderful hobby of ours, it is and should always be about having fun.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Maybe also relevant to this discussion is that graph I have seen--can't seem to find a post with it now--where "number of years diving" is plotted against something along the lines of "how much one thinks they know." As I recall, it was sort of bell curve shaped. New divers know they know nothing. And divers with many years of experience come to realize just how little they know. The know-it-all divers are in the middle.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I still remember a lot of the posts from TSandM who was probably one of the nicest people I have corresponded with (just wish I had had a chance to meet her). She ended up diving with some of the leaders of GUE and her post about it is one I always try to remember when things get annoying - she ended up "dancing" underwater with Jarred Jablonski (the link is here). As she noted, even the "gurus" weren't perfect but had fun.

Even at the extreme end of this wonderful hobby of ours, it is and should always be about having fun.

I was one of TSandM's early mentors, and the person who initially mentioned GUE to her ... she had the sort of analytical mind that made it a good fit. Met JJ once too ... I was working at 5th D at the time, and we ended up sharing a seawall together while we each taught our respective classes. Seemed like a nice enough fellow ... I can see him and Lynne dancing together underwater.

Lynne had an interesting way of thinking about diving ... she chronically challenged herself, and worked way harder at it than I ever wanted to ... but she always tried to keep it in perspective and have fun. Better still, she recognized that she'd benefitted from a series of mentors along the way, and always tried paying it forward. With respect to the point of this thread, she was one tech diver who always made time to help a new diver improve ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Maybe also relevant to this discussion is that graph I have seen--can't seem to find a post with it now--where "number of years diving" is plotted against something along the lines of "how much one thinks they know." As I recall, it was sort of bell curve shaped. New divers know they know nothing. And divers with many years of experience come to realize just how little they know. The know-it-all divers are in the middle.

Years ago I coined the phrase "50-dive expert". Seems that there are those who, just about the time they start feeling comfortable in the water, decide they've got this scuba thing mastered. Then about 100 dives later they begin to realize how much else there is to learn. Back during my first year of diving, I was that guy ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)