Blowhards and Windbags

[maleficent]

Ok - so I've just been tortured for 2 + hours in a meeting that leaves me with the question about blowhards and windbags...

For defining purposes:
Windbag: n. A talkative person who communicates nothing of substance or interest.
n : a boring person who talks a great deal about uninteresting topics

Blowhard: n : a very boastful and talkative person
n. A boaster or braggart

(I was pretty impressed to find both words in the dictionary)

So my question is... Do windbags and blowhards realize that they are windbags and blowhards? Or do they think they are gods gift to communication? Perhaps they realize this and choose to not care about their fellow man and just want to talk....(To that i say - get a plant)

What sayeth you?

Are you either a blowhard or a windbag? Personally? I don't have enough confidence in myself to be a blowhard - but I know I fall into the windbagginess category often..

[Suave]

At risk of being a windbag... windbaggery is a relative idea. "Boring" and "uninteresting" are in the eye (or ear) of the beholder. So I'd say a lot of windbags don't know, but there are probably some who do, and some who may not be windbags who are afraid that they actually ARE windbags! And yet, only some people may think the person is a windbag. Mayhap we should have a vote by majority on who is a windbag and who is not. Topsy-turvy I tell you.

As far as blowhards, there are three-ish kinds I think. There are blowhards who actually believe their own hype, blowhards who are trying to compensate for massive insecurities (I think this is the biggest group), and sarcastic/ironic blowhards who do it for effect.

[THGL]

choose to not care about their fellow man and just want to talk

I refer to this as Verbal Masterbation. It's only purpose is self-gratification.

I work with a woman who does it and not only is it annoying but rather sad (I honestly think she has a problem with silence).

[Charlatan]

I can be a bit of a windbag at times... but I don't see myself as a blowhard. If I were to exhibit either tendencies, my wife would be quick to deflate my windbag. She's very good at things like this...

[JustJess]

Verifiable windbag here.
Blowhard? Not unless he asks!


ahem, sorry.

Oh, right, there was a QUESTION here! Right, sorry.

Windbags may be aware, but unable to help themselves. Why else would they talk so much?? I have to agree with the above in regards to blowhards... major ego needs.

[Charlatan]

Some windbags are windbags because they don't like quiet... I hate awkward pauses in a conversation and will find myself trying to fill the dead air (it's one of the reasons I was good on radio).

[Suave]

The pauses are only akward if you let them be akward. I personally prefer a few pauses to the horrifyingly endless stream of words that assails my consciousness, turning what should be a five minute answer into a 30 minute dissertation.

[BigBen]

I have been told that I am an "Extrovert", and I do enjoy talking to people.

Would an introvert consider me a "Windbag"? Certainly, because I know that I talk 5 times as much as the people around me.

Fuck it; I don't mind the label. Call me what you want, just don't call me late for dinner.

At least I am an intelligent windbag.

Communication is too important to me.

[Meditrina]

Windbag: n. A talkative person who communicates nothing of substance or interest.
n : a boring person who talks a great deal about uninteresting topics

This describes this lady who sits right outside of my office to a T. She just talks to talk, and I doubt she realizes it.

[Siege]

I'm both, and in my case, I think it's a bad thing.

I need someone around to say things like "no Siege, you didn't run the 100 metres in 10 seconds, more like 20"

[pig]

I like suave's take on it being something of a relative terminology; usually. Sometimes its not perception, but the reasons behind it can be myriad.

The one thing I dislike are people who aren't receptive to their audience, whether it be 1 person or a crowd. If they want you to shut up, just cut to the chase and sit down.

I'm sure there are tons of people out there who find/have found / will find me to be both. And they're probably right, those bastards.

[fresnelly]

I'm too quiet to be a blowhard, but I can be a windbag. I'm always aware of it though. There was this one time at a party where I was chatting to this woman when, to my horror, I realized I was going on and on about how I like station wagons.

[pig]

Originally Posted by fresnelly

There was this one time at a party where I was chatting to this woman when, to my horror, I realized I was going on and on about how I like station wagons.

and she was all like "puff puff give, puff puff give..."

[Suave]

Hahaha. I've got a friend who has bogarting tendancies.

[Rodney]

I have windbagging tendencies. One gives in to windbaggery when one becomes too interested in playing the 'expert' and not interested enough in hearing what others have to say.

Or when you overtly begin to steer the conversation in a particular direction because you have a lot of knowledge in that direction and want to show off. Never mind that the conservation was originally about something else....

[fresnelly]

I'm pretty good at picking up other people's visual cues as to whether they're interested or not. Despite my lame subject, she was right there with me, the whole way.

It's a poor listener and a TRUE blowhard who blithely ignores those subtle, and not so subtle cues.

Originally Posted by pigglet

and she was all like "puff puff give, puff puff give..."

I don't get this. Is this from a movie or something?

[meembo]

Originally Posted by JustJess

Verifiable windbag here.
Blowhard? Not unless he asks!


ahem, sorry. .

Maybe that's an old joke, but I liked it!

I'm not a blowhard or windbag, but I know I'm something closely related. What do you call it when you tend to go on longer than necessary? I tend to take an interesting topic and just keep on talking UNTIL I bore myself and everyone around me. It's the one social tic I have that I desperately wish I could always control better than I actually do. Oh well...

[Martian]

I've been accused of being both, only not in such polite terms. Am I really? I don't think so, but I suppose nobody would choose to think of themselves in such unflattering terms. Undoubtedly there are those here who think of me that way - 'you hit my rhetoric' button and I'll respond with the most well-written and intelligent argument I'm capable of constructing. Despite my pains to conceal it I do have a fairly strong grasp of the english language, which tends to appear when I engage in debate, even over internet forums.

Does that make me a windbag? I don't think so. Again, there's probably those who'd disagree with me.

Originally Posted by fresnelly

I don't get this. Is this from a movie or something?

I took it as a reference to toking up and the old 'puff puff pass' rule. As in, he'd smoked too much weed and wasn't sharing.

Oh, that's my other thing. I tend to explain things out, even things that people may already know. I've ben told this occasionally comes across as condescending.

It's funny how that happens. If I'm in a barroom I tend to revert to 'Joe Schmoe' mode and leave all that crap out; I'll act like any other guy. But if you sit me in a room and someone mentions atomic theory or computer security or literature or music or any number of a thousand different subjects I'm interested in, I'll talk your ear off...

[flstf]

Originally Posted by maleficent

Ok - so I've just been tortured for 2 + hours in a meeting that leaves me with the question about blowhards and windbags...

What I find difficult to handle is when a meeting is called to solve a particular problem and someone takes the conversation in a totally unrelated direction. This snowballs when it is reinforced by one or more others at the table and gets difficult to control and a lot of time is wasted.

Sometimes I think we just need to say something in order to feel like we are contributing. I knew one very intelligent engineer who you had to almost hit over the head to get him to say anything but when he did his analysis was usually right on.