Arm Chair Warriors

Good post. Unless one has experienced something, all the theoretical knowledge, while good, is not very meaningful. And even worse is developing an opinion based on reading rather than experiencing and disseminating to others as gospel. Unfortunately seeing a lot of this recently.
Last time I posted something like this, one forum member got so upset that he stated that he doesn't have to snort cocaine (or some drug reference that I don't recall) to know how it feels! At that time I wondered how one can feel something by reading about it? And in the context of our forum, how does one report their opinion on some component or setup, without listening to it (its like hearing it by reading about it)?
And guys, this is not a demeaning post by any means towards anyone, I am genuinely interested in how this anomaly happens in our beloved hobby and is accepted by all.
Cheers,
Sid

Yikes. I thought this was going to be a thread about seating.

Dear Moderators,
Kindly change the title to Armchair Warriors - appears to be some confusion - relating to the title.
Edit: Never mind - figured it out.

dafreaking said:

Yikes. I thought this was going to be a thread about seating.

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Apologize for the confusion, usually in web based online forums, there is a reference to armchair experts - people who spout information by reading rather than experiencing - that is what I was alluding to. No harm intended.
Cheers,
Sid

sidvee said:

Armchair warriors

I know how to fly a plane. I have even sat in the jump seat of a 747 and observed every step the pilot made to safely land the beast. Despite this wealth of knowledge I suspect neither of us would be comfortable with me taking the controls of our next flight. Turns out that no matter how...

www.psaudio.com

Good post. Unless one has experienced something, all the theoretical knowledge, while good, is not very meaningful. And even worse is developing an opinion based on reading rather than experiencing and disseminating to others as gospel. Unfortunately seeing a lot of this recently.
Last time I posted something like this, one forum member got so upset that he stated that he doesn't have to snort cocaine (or some drug reference that I don't recall) to know how it feels! At that time I wondered how one can feel something by reading about it? And in the context of our forum, how does one report their opinion on some component or setup, without listening to it (its like hearing it by reading about it)?
And guys, this is not a demeaning post by any means towards anyone, I am genuinely interested in how this anomaly happens in our beloved hobby and is accepted by all.
Cheers,
Sid

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Opinions are free and everyone has one, along with that other thing.

It is very easy to just talk about & give gyan on anything, it is not limited to audio - stocks, bit coin, property, construction, tech, art, next big thing, last big thing etc etc. People have an opinion on everything as it takes nothing to have one. Charge people when they give opinions and you will get a lot lesser.

There is a very apt Hindi saying - "Adhjal Gagari Chalkat Jaye, bhari gagariya chuppe jaye" - I guess it sums up a lot!

Cheers!

chander said:

Charge people when they give opinions and you will get a lost lesser.

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Very true - There has to be something to be said about the person who goes through the expense and energy to experience something and then report genuinely about it, and for whatever reason that doesn't seem to carry much weight now-a-days. Quite erroneous in my opinion.
Cheers,
Sid

sidvee said:

Very true - There has to be something to be said about the person who goes through the expense and energy to experience something and then report genuinely about it.
Cheers,
Sid

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Yes, that in general takes a lot of time & experience, years of dedicated time. Even if someone forms an opinion on their first couple of experiences, the hindi saying I quoted above still stands.

We have a lot of people in this forum with genuine chops from DIY to just owning/experiencing a lot of different things, experiences formed over years or atleast 100s of dedicated hours. But then.. it is easier again to just faff.

chander said:

We have a lot of people in this forum with genuine chops from DIY to just owning/experiencing a lot of different things, experiences formed over years or atleast 100s of dedicated hours. But then.. it is easier again to just faff.

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And what's worse to spout that as hard earned knowledge or fact. Give me an experienced person any-day, they are worth more than a 1000 arm-chair warriors. With current AI trends etc., its very easy to read/collate about stuff (correct and erroneous) - so one doesn't need arm chair warriors anymore - another job lost to AI unfortunately.
Cheers,
Sid

I

sidvee said:

Apologize for the confusion, usually in web based online forums, there is a reference to armchair experts - people who spout information by reading rather than experiencing - that is what I was alluding to. No harm intended.
Cheers,
Sid

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I was kidding Sid. I'm well aware about the term. Used a lot on football groups.

Jokes aside. This is probably an issue as old as the internet. And a lot of us are "guilty" to a certain extent.

dafreaking said:

I

I was kidding Sid. I'm well aware about the term. Used a lot on football groups.

Jokes aside. This is probably an issue as old as the internet. And a lot of us are "guilty" to a certain extent.

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No issues @ dafreaking,
Unfortunately if this is not reiterated then it just gets buried - regardless of which group it relates to - back in the day - as you mentioned - we had armchair quarterbacks for monday night football in the us (and I have been guilty of that many times)- imo that is a lot less harmful than the quarterbacks we have now-a-days on audio/video forums urging one to spend big bucks on something they have read, as Paul Mcgowan refers to in the link I posted.
Cheers,
Sid

chander said:

"Adhjal Gagari Chalkat Jaye, bhari gagariya chuppe jaye"

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Hi, This sounds interesting. Could you post a translation or transliteration of this? It’s beyond my rudimentary knowledge of Hindi.

I completely relate with this post. I have been at the receiving end by many of our own FMs armchair critics during my cable debates. Off-late I have completely stopped posting anything.

Hari Iyer said:

I completely relate with this post. I have been at the receiving end by many of our own FMs armchair critics during my cable debates. Off-late I have completely stopped posting anything.

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Very true @hari. Even I think 4-5 times now before I post anything, even if I have experienced it, as I am not sure how - many FM's who have been fed a steady diet of reviews, you tube videos etc. will react to someone's real world experience vs what they read or saw. Anyways just as yourself, I prefer to be on the side lines more and more now. And I know a few other experienced FM's in a similar predicament.
Cheers,
Sid

Hari Iyer said:

I completely relate with this post. I have been at the receiving end by many of our own FMs armchair critics during my cable debates. Off-late I have completely stopped posting anything.

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sidvee said:

Very true @hari. Even I think 4-5 times now before I post anything, even if I have experienced it, as I am not sure how - many FM's who have been fed a steady diet of reviews, you tube videos etc. will react to someone's real world experience vs what they read or saw. Anyways just as yourself, I prefer to be on the side lines more and more now. And I know a few other experienced FM's in a similar predicament.
Cheers,
Sid

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I've also heard the term "armchair warrior" being tossed about; alluding to people who sit comfortably, observing from a distance, not getting their hands dirty, yet feeling so entitled in their criticism of others.

Armchair warriors kill creativity, innovation, spirit and productivity...

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We are in a public forum and there are bound to be as many if not more opinions as people. it is the consumer who has to do the due diligence.
Who is on a theoretical armchair, a foundational unsound one or an experientially strong one has to be decided by them.


very much like the news these days it seems !!!

sidvee said:

Very true @hari. Even I think 4-5 times now before I post anything, even if I have experienced it, as I am not sure how - many FM's who have been fed a steady diet of reviews, you tube videos etc. will react to someone's real world experience vs what they read or saw. Anyways just as yourself, I prefer to be on the side lines more and more now. And I know a few other experienced FM's in a similar predicament.
Cheers,
Sid

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I honestly dont think we have reached ASR forum levels of madness, where folks will bite at anything they can't afford or does'nt conform to their limited knowledge or beliefs.

It takes being a little thick skinned to survive on today's web, and who cares anyway what anyone else says. There are murkier places on the net, where it gets down to abuse..literally. We lot are far from it.

Just take things with a bit of humor and post whatever you feel like. Who cares what anyone else thinks

Yelamanchili manohar said:

I honestly dont think we have reached ASR forum levels of madness, where folks will bite at anything they can't afford or does'nt conform to their limited knowledge or beliefs.

It takes being a little thick skinned to survive on today's web, and who cares anyway what anyone else says. There are murkier places on the net, where it gets down to abuse..literally. We lot are far from it.

Just take things with a bit of humor and post whatever you feel like. Who cares what anyone else thinks

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Maybe better not to post at all and listen to music. That is what I am doing. There are a couple of forums where experience counts more than arm chair comments, and I frequent them.
Cheers,
Sid

sidvee said:

Maybe better not to post at all and listen to music. That is what I am doing. There are a couple of forums where experience counts more than arm chair comments, and I frequent them.
Cheers,
Sid

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Your good selves are making it sound like its all dreadful and gloomy here . I honestly dont remember any posts where anyone has talked down anyone else. Even if there were, those must be a miniscule minority considering the scale of posts and conversations done here.

I did have some grievances in the past, then one week on ASR forum, and this place started looking as harmless as a kinder garden

There's another PoV to this labelling. Many times, a person having an opinion to the contrary of the other is labelled an armchair warrior just because their opinion is contrarian.
There are times when people have actual experience but are delusional (a human being is involved after all) about that experience. When that delusion gets called out these labels start flying. In such cases, what makes the delusional but experienced person right and the person calling him/her out, wrong (or an armchair warrior)?
Just experience does NOT make a person right which I'm sure all of us have seen in our professional life. Just as theoretics does not provide all answers.

Edit:
And to those who stop posting just because they think they will get a negative reaction to their posts - think again and learn to take this in your stride. It's only the internet after all.

Yelamanchili manohar said:

Your good selves are making it sound like its all dreadful and gloomy here . I honestly dont remember any posts where anyone has talked down anyone else. Even if there were, those must be a miniscule minority considering the scale of posts and conversations done here.

I did have some grievances in the past, then one week on ASR forum, and this place started looking as harmless as a kinder garden

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Not at all @Yelamanchili manohar - however I have been on the forum since 2007 and I see the general quality of the recommendations, quality of posts etc. have come down a few notches (just my opinion). So it is that context that I am bemoaning this fact. Yes undoubtedly our forum is still a very friendly place so I am not alluding to that, it is mainly regarding the reduced quality of decent content in posts.
Regarding talking down others, well the forum is well moderated so it won't get out of hand, but the intent of armchair-ism is still there.
Yes there are forums like ASR etc. where the subjectivists are hounded out, but then I don't think subjectivists have any business being there in the first place, just like ASR's who will go to other forums and say that measurements are everything - they don't survive there very long either.
Anyways I don't want to ramble on endlessly - especially when nobody cares - back to the music for me.

keith_correa said:

There's another PoV to this labelling. Many times, a person having an opinion to the contrary of the other is labelled an armchair warrior just because their opinion is contrarian.
There are times when people have actual experience but are delusional (a human being is involved after all) about that experience. When that delusion gets called out these labels start flying. In such cases, what makes the delusional but experienced person right and the person calling him/her out, wrong (or an armchair warrior)?
Just experience does NOT make a person right which I'm sure all of us have seen in our professional life. Just as theoretics does not provide all answers.

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Not sure about professional life, but in a hobby such as this, I personally attribute more importance to an opinion or POV based on actual experience whether it is contrary to what I belive or not, and will make the effort to verify that POV. At-least that is what I have been trying to do all along. Yes people get labelled in a public forum, and as was suggested earlier one must have thick skin and do their own research at the end of the day.
Cheers,
Sid

sidvee said:

Not sure about professional life,...

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You're right. I should not have just mentioned "professional life" specifically. I amend that to just "life".