“You’re welcome” can be said with a lot of venom. “No problem” can be said to indicate; “It’s my job and I’m glad to do it!” I think some people just need to have something to complain about.

Remember Lenny Bruce’s bit on “Fuck You!” as best wishes.

Yeah, the edit function is acting a little weird. I’ll see what I can do about it.

I tried to edit my post Les and I got this instead of success:

Webpage error details

User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; FDM; .NET CLR 2.0.50727)
Timestamp: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 17:41:16 UTC

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URI: http://stupidevilbastard.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-ajax-edit-comments/js/comment-editor.js?ver=2.3

Gee. All this time I thought I was being disarmingly-friendly and casual. I always say “no problem”.

Whats funny is all the arguments against using “no problem” and its insincerity/inapplicability could be applied to “You’re Welcome”. Again, the person did whatever-task because, as the complainers said, they were paid to. Well, duh, then you’re not “welcome” to it either.

This is a matter of uncreative, psychologically-conservative dimwits who have to complain about anything unconventional, and insert their egos in for good measure. Like grammar nazis who still call you stupid for splitting infinitives. Get a LIFE people!

Makes you wonder if a sad bunch of nitpickers like that ever heard the British English “not at all”…

I think what gets me annoyed is that these people seem to have a set expectation about what kind of response they deserve. They assume that simply because they said thank you they should get nothing less than a you’re welcome regardless of my feelings on the topic. I just don’t work that way.

I have no problem with “no problem”. Other languages use their translation of “it’s nothing” in response to a thank you and I just figure that no problem is the English equivalent. I use a mix of no problem, you’re welcome and you are MOST welcome. I’ve realized that my response is somewhat dependent on the sincerity of the thank you. If it is just an automatic then they get the no problem. If it more sincere, you’re welcome and if someone is effusive with thanks then they get the you are MOST welcome.

The use of “thank you” has devolved into a mere platitude in public. It’s sort of like when the waitress walks by your table and asks “how is everything?” She really couldn’t care less – it’s a rhetorical question. The checkout cashiers at the store may say “thank you” or “have a nice day” but it’s just a perfunctory response they are trained to say. Here in Minnesota, they usually just say “here you go” which is another way of saying “you spent your money, now get the fuck out of here.”

In any case, I don’t give it much thought. I don’t expect sincerity from people who don’t even know me. A “thank you” from a loved one or a boss or a client has far more value to me.

I agree with you Les. But I think there are some people, young techs like myself, that might benefit from watching what we say to certain people. I don’t always mind what I say necessarily. Usually I’m myself. But I try to be a little more vigilant when networking with important folks or talking to an interviewer.

I don’t really like the idea, but I’m at a point in my career where my technical knowledge and experience aren’t completely trusted off the bat. I have to earn everything. And burning a bridge over something like this seems easily avoidable.

This isn’t overanalyzed enough. The fault clearly lies with people who insist on a subservient and transparently hollow reply to a perfunctory acknowledgment of a job done according to expectations.

In practice, both “thank you” and “you’re welcome” (in all its variations) runs the gamut from “I’m really really grateful” to a social convention to “fuck you”. If you really are thankful, then you’ll take the reply in its intended spirit. Otherwise, to give a damn justifies the “no problem”.