Jon Isaacs wrote:
Making judgements about conmpassion is a risky game.

I am not seeing you giving Herb much compassion.

I think compassion is sort of a red herring here. It seems to me that
Michael's issue as he has aired it here is one of making it clear what
the criteria are. Making the decisions clear, as well as the finality
of those decisions, reduces grief. Seems like a good idea to me.

So the bottom line is making clear what one's doing, not (necessarily)
being compassionate.

Because unless you are really clued into the situation, a backseat
driver most often is nothing more than a unnecessary distraction.

We would all really appreciate being more clued into the situation! I
can appreciate that Herb only wants to clue us in a limited way, but I
don't really understand why. As long as the answers are cryptic and
along the lines of "Astromart moves in mysterious ways," even if those
ways are really beneficial to most involved, people's curiosities are
going to be piqued. That's human nature.

Funny. Do you understand the reason behind this requirement? I think
if you did understand, then you would be less critical and more reasonable.

Well, I think here we just have a failure to communicate, or something.
Because I have had the reasoning behind this requirement explained to me
a few times, and it has never made any sense. And believe me, I've tried
pretty hard to understand it.

Probably that has something to do with Herb's cryptic responses at times.

Here's a clue. Herb is of the opinion that those who are in the business
of amateur astromony ought to be helping him with some of the expenses of
operating Astromart.

That's just it. Why is Michael with his book more in the "business" than
I am with my software? Is it that I'm not making more than pocket money
with mine? (I have no idea how lucrative Michael's book is, but it
apparently isn't making him rich.)

I'm not trying to whine, honestly--there are just some things about
Astromart that I don't understand, and it does seem like a bit of work to
get some of the answers.

Brian Tung
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
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