PSA: How to Avoid Being "That" Guy

[k0em9u]

LR = Law Review? For a 1L in first semester?

To get de-bumped in a class, you will typically have to @#!* up several times, be disruptive in class etc. Missing a question when called on never gets you debumped, at least I have never ever heard of that happening.

It's not different, there are people who like to talk for the sake of talking all over. There's good active and there is retarded active, no disagreement there. But you get more out of your education if you participate, that's pretty obvious.

[,.,.,.;.,.,.]

The LR guy is a 2L.

[,.,.,.;.,.,.]

But you get more out of your education if you participate, that's pretty obvious.

This is a silly debate. If people participate smartly at CLS, that sounds awesome. And maybe you or your classmates get more out of your/their education by participating in the way you describe, but many people do not learn the same way. Your proposition is neither categorically true nor obvious.

Credited.  I, for one, tend to learn better when I can follow the discussion quietly, rather than trying to insert my own thoughts into it.

[Slumdog Lovebutton]

You shouldn't:
4. Talk about how much or how little work you're doing.  Please, please, please don't do this.  Someone bragged to me about how they're working at least 8 hours a day, if not more.  Oh, really?  Well, none of the rest of us are studying at all, so that makes you very special.  Conversely, talking about your slacker tendencies is okay, but not as good as talking about something else.

Ummmm, this from the guy whose facebook status is, 90% of the time, about all the work he's doing?
 

[no634]

The self-awareness points are pretty valid. I think the key factor that distinguishes a good-faith participant from a “gunner” is the ability to decide which questions are more appropriate to ask after class.

A clarifying question helps you follow the discussion – whereas a random hypo is more likely to be irrelevant to class discussion and annoying to your peers.

And yes, monologues are annoying.

But the people I find equally as irritating as the gunner(s) are those who – no matter who is talking – suck their teeth and roll their eyes. A gunner is seldom obnoxious 100% of the time. Some of the comments he or she makes are going to be valid. Just realize that if you’re rude to the gunner, your peers will notice your mini-hissy-fit and put you in the same socially inept category.

[papercranes]

You shouldn't:
4. Talk about how much or how little work you're doing.  Please, please, please don't do this.  Someone bragged to me about how they're working at least 8 hours a day, if not more.  Oh, really?  Well, none of the rest of us are studying at all, so that makes you very special.  Conversely, talking about your slacker tendencies is okay, but not as good as talking about something else.

Ummmm, this from the guy whose facebook status is, 90% of the time, about all the work he's doing?
 

seconded, LB. ROF 

[ulpian246]

Unless you are just asking the prof to clear up a point that it is pretty likely the whole class is trying to decipher (Ex Ante. Ex Post. Kant. Shin. Mink. Becawze?), there is absolutely no reason your brilliant hypothetical, extra case you read because you lexis and shepardize the book footnotes, or disturbingly personal anecdote can't wait until after class.  If it is truly that enlightened, I'm sure the professor will bring it up the next day and give you a gold star.

[Quail!]

Unless you are just asking the prof to clear up a point that it is pretty likely the whole class is trying to decipher (Ex Ante. Ex Post. Kant. Shin. Mink. Becawze?), there is absolutely no reason your brilliant hypothetical, extra case you read because you lexis and shepardize the book footnotes, or disturbingly personal anecdote can't wait until after class.  If it is truly that enlightened, I'm sure the professor will bring it up the next day and give you a gold star.

On a related note:

If you ask a question, and use the phrases "ex post" or "ex ante" or both in the same question, chances are you are a feminine hygiene product.

[contrarian]

You shouldn't:

1. Raise your hand more than once per class period.  I know the rule sounds harsh, but, when you have 90 others and a professor with a plan, there's no need for your novice input.

Most of the LR people at my school, I've been told, were quiet in class.

2. Approach anyone at the library and begin a long conversation.  I can't tell you how many times I've been sitting at a desk, trying to work, when someone comes over to me like they're ready to shoot the breeze for an hour.  The library isn't a social scene.  It's a library.  Acknowledgements should be as limited as a funeral's.

3. Speak in publishable sentences.  Some people think that law school gives them license to throw out clunkers like "egregious recourse to deregulation."  Guess what?  Nobody thinks that you're intelligent because you can string together polysyllabic words.

4. Talk about how much or how little work you're doing.  Please, please, please don't do this.  Someone bragged to me about how they're working at least 8 hours a day, if not more.  Oh, really?  Well, none of the rest of us are studying at all, so that makes you very special.  Conversely, talking about your slacker tendencies is okay, but not as good as talking about something else.

5. Go around telling people how to avoid being "That Guy".

Fixed it for you.