Not out of malice, but just when you hadn't thought about how your action or lackthereof could impact the people around you.
I have noticed that because, on the whole, I live a pretty comfortable life (job a job where they like me and give me freedom, etc), other people can get irritated or feel off-put when I complain about it. While even the sweetest peach has a pit, it is good to remember that I really don't have it badly. I also tend to dismiss other people's problems or concerns, especially when i cannot relate to them, too quickly (conversationally). The most insensitive and thoughtless things I do, I find, are when my brain is going me me me. I need to remember to think of others first.
It's more saying than doing but: My friend in South Africa told me she was off school because it was Youth Day. I made a joke about it, because she seems to always be off school for silly-sounding government holidays (Family Day, Freedom Day). Turns out Youth Day is about remembrance of some sort of Apartheid school massacre...
After a practice session of a certain activity, my friends and I gathered around a table and were discussing whether or not our next meeting would be on Saturday. One said she couldn't go; she had church. I immediately made a "pfft" noise and some joke about how our activity was our new religion. It was only thinking back on that moment I realized how rude I had been.
I don't know if it qualifies as thoughtless but last semester a student association was selling a book 10 euros for a fiscal class. I asked to get the pdf version of the book, because I find it easier to find words and work on it from my computer, in addition to not losing paper. They didn't comply. So a friend bought the book and I taped it on the computer, the whole thing -- 150 word pages and I sended it to all the students (300+).
Mhm, not necessarily. It seems plausible to me that a person may have ideals of information accessibility and a neutral or unformed view of information ownership. Such a person might digitize and distribute the book with the belief they are performing a service, both to readers who prefer or cannot use a printed book, and to the original authors, who did not have the time or skill to produce a market-ready electronic version. I admit, such a person is likely a rare occurrence. And the scenario I describe makes the assumption that that person was operating under the belief that an electronic copy did not yet exist. Creativity's post implies this is not the case form them, but does not make it explicitly clear, which is precisely why I do not pass judgement.
I'm going to give you some context so you can understand the situation fully : 1) The professor gave the pdf of the book to the student association so that they could easily distribute it to all students, as they were supposed to do. They made a margin of 2-3 euros per print, which is fucking crazy for a student association which is not supposed to make money from students. That's how it works in France, as I'm part of a student association, I know they are not supposed to make money out of students. It's not a company. And it wasn't to finance other projects of the association. 2) The book wasn't really a book, it was 150 pages linked like that : 3) There was no ownership of the book, as the professor wanted us to have the book for free, or at production cost.
I am sorry for making a snap judgement against you, now knowing the facts I feel you were totally justified in your actions. I'm a big believer that information should be free and that piracy is a circumstantial solution, this was totally one of those circumstances and my previous comment was rash and rude, again, sorry. How come the professor didn't simply email it out, did you ask them? Did the university take any action against the student association?
No problem. He delegates it every year to the students association, he don't want to have to do it himself (the printing thing) and once he delegates it, he said to me it was too late for giving us the pdf files as it might trouble the students association. As I had inside info it was definitely not a problem for them to give us the pdf, I asked them, but they didn't accept because they had already printed a huge number of books and it might hurt the sales. Next year, they will change their process and provide a pdf for those who want one. The University wasn't directly involved. My association and theirs organize some events together so I had to do that gently without damaging the relations between our associations.
That's a good idea. Unfortunately I can't think of anything. :-( That is not to say I am not a thoughtless person. In fact I might be more thoughtless than most because I can't think of anything. I am hoping to hear from people and see if there is anything I don't usually think of that I do. It is harder to understand it as something you might do if you only hear about things like this when people talk about what this other asshole did to them.