Ask a few questions in a single post (in a topical discussion group) and observe how the average joe responds. See how often it happens that he answers one question and doesn’t touch the others—and makes no mention of why he’s ignoring the others.
I’m fairly convinced that this is because he has ignored the others. Sure, he may have read them, but the way the lazy mind works, they did not register as important. So he doesn’t process them, and may well think he’s being diligent in giving the reply he has given. He thinks he’s a fine thinker, more or less, and doesn’t recognize that he’s not investing enough thinking energy to thoroughly ponder what you have set out in your questions.
He may still be conditioned by his school days, when the attaboy! he got for answering one of the teacher’s questions satisfied him deeply, such that he lost concern over having no answer at all for her other questions. So when he sees a collection of questions, he’s still in the habit of setting his sights on a single attaboy!, and gives no thought to how he cannot speak to the rest.
He’ll focus on the one he thinks of an answer for, but you’ll have a hard time getting him to focus on the whole of the discussion. He’s not good at that. He’s not accustomed to it. He normally thinks only in bits and pieces, and is not used to considering bigger sections, or the whole of a matter. In my many years of trying to get people to consider wholes, I’ve run into this bits-and-pieces response countless times.
This describes our whole culture, generally, and there are few exceptions. Few people learn to think a thing through rigorously and on the whole. And in a great many cases, it’s not because they are incapable, but because they are unwilling to invest themselves in it. Cognitive scientists call us “cognitive misers” on account of this unwillingness to expend mental energy unless we’re pressed to do it. Few learn the benefits of habitually volunteering to think a thing through.
I should note that the people who walk away from such a discussion having really learned something are most often the ones willing to engage in most or all of the questions that are put forth. They are the ones most vulnerable to realizing that they have got some things wrong, or that they have gaps in their knowledge, because they’re willing to stand face-to-face with a question and look it in the eye, where the others turn away too soon to get anywhere with it.
The average joe is content with whomever he is at the moment, while the above-average joe is wanting to improve his knowledge and understanding.
