Women in the Backcountry Don’t Need Your Help

[gregw822]

I don't need advice about steripens either. I just drink the water.
Hey...it's not our fault. For generations men have been expected to have all the answers. Therefore, any man always has a "manswer" ready to go. A "manswer" is something a man can make up on the spur of the moment, because we're supposed to have all the answers, even when we don't. You just can't expect us to throw over generations of indoctrination, even when we know you speak the truth! Most of us are doing our best. After all, we're just men. Blunt instruments, all of us. Give us another generation or two. We'll get there eventually.

[Wandering Daisy]

My observation is that a few of today's women are also learning how to "manswer". Frustrates me no end that every young clerk in a store, man or woman, will make up anything to answer your question; to appear to know something, as well as make us feel good. Honestly saying "I don't know" seems to be a lost art. In fact you can get a degree in "BS-ing" - it is called "marketing".

[gregw822]

Couple that with the proliferation of people afflicted with being right all the time, and it can be hard to venture out among them. Happy to say I'm wrong quite often. It's so liberating! I called myself out for manswering for a while. My wife got tired of hearing it, and I was embarrassed. It helped.

[Harlen]

Wandering Daisy writes:

Frustrates me no end that every young clerk in a store, man or woman, will make up anything to answer your question; to appear to know something, as well as make us feel good. Honestly saying "I don't know" seems to be a lost art.

This is too true! As a science person, I am especially averse to misinformation. I think the most common in gear stores is the myth of "water-proof" gortex hiking boots; that really sets me off. Nancy, your last sentence there reminds of an apocryphal story about Socrates: One of his followers was praising him to the skies, and Socrates said, "No, there is nothing special about my thinking, or only this: When I don't know something, I do not pretend to."

I may be butchering the story, but that's the gist of it. Admirable trait, and one that may indeed be waning in this "information age."

[balzaccom]

Wandering Daisy writes:

Frustrates me no end that every young clerk in a store, man or woman, will make up anything to answer your question; to appear to know something, as well as make us feel good. Honestly saying "I don't know" seems to be a lost art.

This is too true! As a science person, I am especially averse to misinformation. I think the most common in gear stores is the myth of "water-proof" boots; that really sets me off. Nancy, your last sentence there reminds of an apocryphal story about Socrates: One of his followers was praising him to the skies, and Socrates said, "No, there is nothing special about my thinking, or only this: When I don't know something, I do not pretend to."

I may be butchering the story, but that's the gist of it. Admirable trait, and one that may indeed be waning in this "information age."

The other half of this story is just bad salesmanship. Instead of listening to customers and providing information based on the customers needs, salespeople simply push what is popular, or what has worked for them,

I remember a visit to REI a few years ago when my wife was looking for new boots. She had very specific criteria in mind, based on her 2,000 miles of hiking in the Sierra. The salesperson immediately tried to sell us on a pair of boots that was used by one of her colleagues "to hike the whole John Muir Trail.' The colleague was in her 20's and had never backpacked before that. They were complete wrong for my wife, but the salesperson wasn't hearing it...

I teach salesmanship. First rule: Listen. Ask a lot of questions, and try to understand the customer. I always say that you cannot sell anything to anyone---but you can find out what they want to buy, and then make that possible.

[Jimr]

I may be butchering the story, but that's the gist of it. Admirable trait, and one that may indeed be waning in this "information age."

Dunning-Kruger effect proliferates in today's "information age".

[rlown]

Dabbling in psychology now? I don't give advice unless asked, but if someone is making a bad choice, I will speak up and then move on. just ask my dog. Their choice in the end.