Ninety Nine Bad Things
... or "Who's got the list?"
- People who think that continuous assessment is invariably a
good thing.
It isn't. Continuous assessment is a system whereby even the doziest
student can pass if they trudge along valiantly and display not one
ounce of applied intelligence. While this may be great for the next
generation of Job Centre staff, it is of little worth in the real world.
Would you rather have the slow-but-sure plodder thinking inside the box
or would you rather have an innovator who won't turn to jelly when put
under real pressure? I thought so.
- The assumption that every noun has a corresponding verb and
vice-versa. Yes, I'm looking at you, marketing guys!
- Tennis commentators (and summarisers and analysts and ...) who seem
to think that one tournament is a Grand Slam. It isn't. A Grand Slam in
tennis is to win all the four majors in the same discipline in the same
calendar year. Call the individual tournaments "majors" if you wish -
that's fine, but stop diminishing the Grand Slam. What the hell are you
going to call it when someone (Nadal, Djokovic?) finally achieves it?
- Everyone (but particularly those on radio or television) who says
"forward slash" when they mean "slash". If you are one of those people
consider for a moment if you would actually say "forward space". No?
Then why do it for slashes?
- Any journalist (but particularly those on radio or television (are we
spotting a pattern here?) who reports on "what social media are saying".
This is a clear indication that they have no understanding of social
media at all. Why else would they parrot back to us what we clearly
already think?
- Harriet Harman.
- Russell "talentless" Brand.
- The EU. I mean, really. Where to start? The thoroughly pointless and
wasteful Cookie Law? The VATMESS? The unbridled corruption
which would make Mugabe dumbstruck with awe at its vastness? It's all a
complete fiasco on an unimaginable scale. There would appear to be not
one single person with an ounce of both competence and benevolence in
the entire edifice. When we do finally get out it will not be one second
too soon. Update: We are now out - hallelujah!
- Search engines which show results for what they wrongly suppose I
meant to type rather than what I actually typed. Stop double-guessing
us and just show us what we asked for. If that's not what we wanted,
we are smart enough to spot it and re-try. Unfortunately they all do
this so we can't even single out any one bad example.