11.07.2006

cranky

it frustrates me when people don't answer my questions well. when you claim that your computational system represents and interacts with communicative (pragmatic) context and i ask how that works, don't repond by explaining that pragmatics is important. *i* know that pragmatics is important, i'm a linguist! an ex-programmer linguist, no less, and i have a good idea of just how hard the problem represented by that innocent-looking little box and arrow on your powerpoint slide actually is.

note to self: if you want to attract people to work on your project, you really need to not only make it look interesting, but present at least a plausible attack. you need to give people handles.

i don't expect anyone to have all the answers. i would be happiest with an honest "yes, that's a hard problem. why don't we sit down sometime and talk through possible approaches."

headache.
caffeine.
writing.