Somebody else's problem: Difference between revisions
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'''Somebody else's problem''' (also known as '''someone else's problem''' or '''SEP''') is a phrase coined comedically by [[Douglas Adams]]. | '''Somebody else's problem''' (also known as '''someone else's problem''' or '''SEP''') is a phrase coined comedically by [[Douglas Adams]] that refers to a "field" that hides problems that one doesn't want to see and fix. It also refers to an actual psychological phenomenon built upon this concept by which issues are ignored due to humans "natural desire not to deal".<ref>{{cite web|title=A Beginner’s Guide to Invisibility|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/13/sight-unseen-critic-at-large-kathryn-schulz|publisher=The New Yorker|accessdate=5 May 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Discounting IQ’s Relevance to Organizational Behavior: The “Somebody Else’s Problem” in Management Education|journal=Open Differential Psychology|url=http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.716.354&rep=rep1&type=pdf|accessdate=5 May 2017}}</ref> | ||
==Origin== | ==Origin== | ||
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==References by others== | ==References by others== | ||
Since the publication of {{H2G2|book|3|link=yes}}, the phrase has | Since the publication of {{H2G2|book|3|link=yes}}, the phrase has been used by others, such as: | ||
* [[President of France|French president]] [[Nicolas Sarkozy]] warned the [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] that "The [decline of the] dollar cannot remain someone else's problem. If we are not careful, monetary disarray could morph into economic war. We would all be victims."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto110920071500182722&page=2 |publisher=Financial Times |author=Krishna Guha |title=The world's currency could become a US problem |date=2007-11-09 |accessdate=2008-06-07}}</ref> | * [[President of France|French president]] [[Nicolas Sarkozy]] warned the [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] that "The [decline of the] dollar cannot remain someone else's problem. If we are not careful, monetary disarray could morph into economic war. We would all be victims."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto110920071500182722&page=2 |publisher=Financial Times |author=Krishna Guha |title=The world's currency could become a US problem |date=2007-11-09 |accessdate=2008-06-07}}</ref> | ||
Revision as of 22:41, 5 May 2017
Somebody else's problem (also known as someone else's problem or SEP) is a phrase coined comedically by Douglas Adams that refers to a "field" that hides problems that one doesn't want to see and fix. It also refers to an actual psychological phenomenon built upon this concept by which issues are ignored due to humans "natural desire not to deal".[1][2]
Origin
In Douglas Adams' 1982 novel Life, the Universe and Everything (in the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction series), the character Ford Prefect says,
The narration then explains:
References by others
Since the publication of Template:H2G2, the phrase has been used by others, such as:
- French president Nicolas Sarkozy warned the U.S. Congress that "The [decline of the] dollar cannot remain someone else's problem. If we are not careful, monetary disarray could morph into economic war. We would all be victims."[3]
- The New York Times said that when the Shah of Iran was exiled in 1979 he became "someone else's problem" from the point of view of President Carter's administration.[4]
- Referring to a team working on a computer programming project, Alan F. Blackwell once wrote: "Many sub-goals can be deferred to the degree that they become what is known amongst professional programmers as an 'S.E.P.' – somebody else's problem."[5]
- Christopher Negus, writing on the origin of Unix at Bell Labs in the 1970s, described Bell Labs at the time as "a think tank where ideas came first and profits were somebody else's problem".[6]
See also
- Buck passing
- Bystander effect
- Externality
- First they came ...
- Global issue
- Inattentional blindness
- NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard)
- Other people's money
- Sheeple
References
- ↑ "A Beginner’s Guide to Invisibility". The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/13/sight-unseen-critic-at-large-kathryn-schulz. Retrieved on 5 May 2017.
- ↑ "Discounting IQ’s Relevance to Organizational Behavior: The “Somebody Else’s Problem” in Management Education". Open Differential Psychology. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.716.354&rep=rep1&type=pdf. Retrieved on 5 May 2017.
- ↑ Krishna Guha (2007-11-09). "The world's currency could become a US problem". Financial Times. http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto110920071500182722&page=2. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
- ↑ Marvin Zonis (1988-11-06). "Someone Else's Problem". The New York Times. https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE5DD1439F935A35752C1A96E948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
- ↑ Blackwell, Alan F.; Arnold, H.L. (January 1997). "Simulating a Software Project: The PoP Guns go to War". Proceedings of the 9th Annual Meeting of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group: 53–60. http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~afb21/publications/PPIG97.html. Retrieved on 2015-03-24.
- ↑ Negus, Christopher (2006-05-10). "Linux's roots in Unix (part 1, chapter 1, section 3)". Fedora 5 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Bible. Bible (Book 327). New York: Wiley. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-4717-5491-6. OCLC 69746564.
Template:HitchhikerMiscellanea
cs:Seznam pojmů, osob a vynálezů ze Stopařova průvodce po Galaxii#Pole problému někoho jiného de:Hintergründe zu Per Anhalter durch die Galaxis#Problem-anderer-Leute-Feld