h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If you had to choose, would you go for...

a) Opportunity but no capability, or

b) Capability but no opportunity?

Definitely a) lack of capability does not seem to hold anyone back, and I have a surfeit of b) already

Hmmmm

I think I might second that.

OK then, I'll disagree and go for a). Capability or the lack of it tends to be relatively permanent. Opportunity is often a function of time. If perchance it should crop up, it's as well to be ready. Unfortunately, capability doesn't tend to crop up in a similar manner.

Now if I'd said b) that would have made sense. Still waking up!

That post, toxxin, is a cop out. The fact that it is in the form of two posts in order to agree with both premises is "cheating". And where did the original post following Hmmmm, go?

I don't remember the "original" being so tentative although it did agree with its presented clone. Is that what happens when we have a lack of conviction yet still wish to proceed? A la Dolly?

If sheep started to clone humans, apparently successfully, would this be seen as an attack on ..........what? IS the FACT that natural reproduction via pleasurable sexual interaction is removed, THAT which we would cry most about.

Or is it that, one of me, is enough and what we really need is more of a better us. The system we have had since Adam and Eve is one which I can relate to and submission to its tantric sub-sections suggests an insight into the human condition which transcends Time and Space.

WOW.....this started out as "Apropos of nothing much" and look where we already ARE! Is that a WE or an I? Time will tell!

Ps can anyone tell me how I can check in a dictionary [for a word which I may wish to use in a posting, as I write the posting], without me LOSING all my work. And have to rewrite EVERYTHING again. Surely we MUST have a simple solution.

Ah! At last a poser totally suited to the old Sworter grey-matter - a "no-brainer"!

a) every time. A cove such as myself, talently-challenged, lives in blissful ignorance of the possibilities of what could be, given an opportunity. Therefore, when such an opportunity hits me foursquare in the chops like a plate of cold custard... I'm still none the wiser.

If the good Lord had given this addled old pate even the slightest glimmering of a boffin-brain - or the talent of a Da Vinci or Beethoven, but the lack of opportunity to give that ability full rein then, sure as eggs are laid, the darkest of black dog moods would sink its fangs forever deep into the rump, resulting in the most miserable of lives.

Yours, in perpetual twerpdom, and proud of it etc, etc,

Ian.

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Either use a good old paper dictionary (books, I seem to remember they were called) or just open up another session of your browser...

Confusing post btw - but then It's Thursday, It's Hot, and I'm hungry...

Either would be a blessing.

Nice to see a question posted here. It could catch on.

Stranger things have happened.

Ian,

Opportunity but no capability..... and that was a definitive answer from you. How refreshing to have something which you can whole heartedly agree with.

And to be followed by a plate of cold custard, foursquare in the chops, must have made your day. Your revelations have made mine.

No more darkest of black dog moods for you.

The Opportunity to believe in something, which you think you believe in, will give you all the capabilities you will ever need. Nice to meet you.

My dear errr.....Martian - or are you from the confectionery company based in Slough (of Despond), old pip?,

Many thanks for your kind words, most of which I can't pretend to begin to even fathom...

Alas, as for that bally bully of a black dog and its invidious fangs - despite my complete absence of a working brain-box and any facility in the beaux arts - the fiendish Cerberus sprouts new heads daily, sits menacingly in the corner - eternally, inexplicably fascinated by the inviting rump of yours truly...

Perhaps the infernal mutt needs glasses?

But I regress.

A great pleasure to make your acquaintance, old chap!

You're more than welcome to pop round to The Grange, anytime for a wee cyber-snifter.

Yours, in perpetual twittering twerpitude and amity (ville horror) etc etc,

Ian.

Ah, but capability without opportunity could be a curse for the impatient man (that's why they put bromide in the tea apparently...). Doesn't opportunity provide goal directed motivation to develop capability? I don't have the capability to drive a 10-ton truck, but the point is that I can add 'yet'.

hello beenz... i question there is such a thing as capability without opportunity... capability necessarly includes the ability to pursue/create opportunities... otherwise you would not really call it capability...

flying over capability brown's lovely blenheim landscape...

Hi Dulci. You fudge the issue with your 'pursue/create'! 'Pursue' is fine but I disagree with 'create'. Say someone has the capability to tame unicorns. They can pursue one if it happens by; but can they really create a unicorn when none are around? I don't think so. OK they might go looking and might well end up disappointed.

Pure sophistry Doc, old boy - if you don't mind me saying.

I believe the Tepes Tiger was referring to the real world, not a hypothesis based on a mythical creature 'horse-whisperer' aspirant.

With enough talent, drive, determination and luck, it is possible to 'create' opportunities where they don't currently exist as long as they are physically achievable in the material world at that time.

No doubt were potentially great F1 drivers 5,000 years ago, they just didn't have the technology at the time...

You mean would I rather be

(a) Bill Gates or

(b) myself ?

No comparison !

I asked a question some time ago - about the optimum number of friends of the opposite sex. I got a few answers, but no real interest. Not like the question (in another forum) that someone asked about whether he should be faithful to his wife.

I think there really were unicorns, possibly living until a few thousand years ago (I can't remember where that report came from, but they weren't related to horses).

When I saw a picture of Tsintaosaurus in one of Benton's books on dinosaurs, it was immediately obvious to me that it was a unicorn.