>> Sorry, but the inner workings of the vertical clutch are poorly explained (i.e. missing entirely)...
This is the most damning part of my initial comment, and the most "inflammatory" (??) of all -- where do you think I am a dick about it?
I even started by apologizing...
Point out the exact paragraph, phrase or words that you considered offensive, and then I can apologize again, if that is the case.
But first, show me exactly where did I rape your fragile and delicate mind, and I will take responsibility for it in front of everybody.
How old are you, by the way? A range would do... Are you at least over 20?
I am over 50, so I need to know if I am dealing with some sort of a delicate creature given the lack of experience with life...
You really seem to have either a real bad ego, or a disproportionate reaction to the mildest criticism...
>> I come here on my own time to help explain things
No, you are not. Excuses again... Found another thing to hide under, Al?
Maybe you do not have a clear understanding what it means to perform in public.
You may not realise it, but this is what anyone is doing when posting for the large public.
When you decide to go public with something, it would be a good idea to own the subject. Not know something about, not read 10 minutes on the Internet about it, but own it. THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR EXPERIENCE. And that always shows.
Rule of thumb is: you should know AT LEAST ten times more about the subject than you are supposed to write or talk about it.
Ten times -- that is 10, comes after nine...
Also, if you decided to be a beacon of knowledge, you have to be rigorous, you have to be well written, you have to be concise but not at the expense of clarity, and you have to proofread and proofread again, because the public, paying or not, deserves respect.
Otherwise, you come across as a lot of other undesirable things, and again, God complex, aggrandizing and tooting your own horn come to the forefront...
You wanna perform, you wanna razzle and dazzle the audience, you wanna be the Zeus of Horology!
Be my guest, power to the people, hurray and all that -- but do it properly... Or do not do it at all.
Or if you do it whichever way you can, and there is benefit even to a half baked article, be a gentleman about it and accept you did not put all your effort into it, accept the holes in your argument and be gracious to the ones that point that out.
They did their homework, they read your article once and twice and three times, they made the effort to understand, they followed you train of thought from the beginning to the end and they came up short -- how is this their fault, oh God of Horology?? Is it their fault that they put the effort and the time and did their homework, but you did not?
>> most are able to understand them
Yeah, but most is not good enough, is it Al? If you feed only most of your children, the rest will die -- and that is down right criminal. If you provide air for most of the space shuttle flight, even if you miss the last five minutes, guess what, the crew will die right at landing time. And that looks really bad on the resume, doesn't it brother?
MOST is not good enough for an engineer Al, it is actually an admission of guilt bordering the incompetent.
Stupid argument, I warned you about it last time, but you do not seem to get it.
Don't use this argument again, you are really putting yourself down -- engineers do not go by MOST (if that is what you really are, you seem to put a lot of effort in convincing me you are actually not an engineer).
Real engineers go by nailing it to the wall and literally destroying the subject -- at least the good ones do.
Now you know who the real prick is.
A real man would have said: "Good point! I have repaired hundreds of watches (or thousands, or millions), but I never bothered to really see how a vertical clutch works, I have never taken one to pieces and study it closely, I have never really took the time to own the subject to the last minute detail of it. I had a job to do, I was in a hurry, it was enough for me to understand the basic principle, whatever... And you know what, I do not have a vertical clutch at hand right now to take it apart and put up some good pictures, but I am really glad you brought it up -- next time I get my hands on one, I will do just that, and I will nail that subject to the wall, not as much for you, but entirely for my own benefit!
And if I can't take pictures for a better illustration, I can still draw, because that is what us engineers are so good at, technical drawing -- when words fail to make the point, a drawing will definitely kill it. And I will be so smart and so kind as to strip away any technological aspect of it, and I will not draw you a Rolex or an Omega or a Breitling clutch, I will draw you first the ideal clutch mechanism, and then we can take if from there and show everybody how each company applied its own philosophy to the matter.
Because this is how engineers think, this is how engineers explain, and this is how engineers behave!
Keep you posted, Al."
And that Al, is your introduction to the subject of INTELLECTUAL HONESTY.
Look it up, it will serve you well in life, but only if you understand the complexities of the subject.
All the best,
Z.
