12  Alberto Gesualdi on KISS

From: amilsolrac [amilsolrac@YAHOO.COM]
Sent: Dienstag, 13. Februar 2001 20:54
To: TANGO-L
Cc: amilsolrac
Subject: Alberto Gesualdi on KISS

Alberto Gesualdi <adm@SMCAR.COM.AR> said, concerning the "Keep it simple,
stupid" cliche'

>

Sorry Nelson, but you place a comma where it id does not go.
<
Alberto, your grammar is off, but your idea is right. What proper people mean
could theoretically be something like "Keep it simple-stupid", "... simple
and stupid", "... simply stupid", etc, no comma. But it just is not so. What
proper people mean is, pretending to talk to themselves, "Keep it simple,
don't you see how easy this really is (can be)?" --- or something similar.
So, Alberto, it IS "Keep it simple, stupid", with comma.

Of course here stupid does not mean destitute of intelligence, but someone,
specifically, one-self, who is doing something stupid, or failing to see
something really obvious, or going off on the wrong tangent. What about
directing "Keep it simple, stupid" to a third party? Well, we won't talk
about that, will we?

Beginner's mistakes are of course rarely something to get nasty about.
Everybody in tango is SMART, anyway. Tango is tricky, you need to be at least
so smart. Unfortunately the smartest people sometimes do pretty stupid things
that are NOT beginners mistakes. It is best to call them "things that are not
particularly admirable", but sometimes one's finger slips on the keyboard.

Cheers,