This is, to my mind, excellent advice. If a casual acquaintance compliments you, acknowledge it (even if you disagree) and move on (unless there’s reason to delve further into it, which there sometimes but rarely is). If you’re very close to the the complimenter, things might be different, but that requires a high level of confidence both in yourself and your friendship.

The thing I would add to this philosophy is, if receiving praise and in the right environment, it can be a good thing to distribute the praise. For example, if you worked on a task and your co-worker helped you, then someone says you did a good job - loudly and positively acknowledge the contributions of the other party, even if they didn’t do that much.

In my experience, this will get you a reputation for sharing credit, so others will want to help you; the individual you’re crediting will be grateful for the acknowledgement (results may vary); and saying someone else is good will often help to mitigate the embarrassment of acknowledging that you might be. The only downside to this approach is that if you spend enough time down playing yourself, others might start to believe you … So be careful, it’s a balancing act.

Your attitude is appreciated! That’s the only time it ever happened to me, so either that lady was an outlier or I got better.

I think it was an overreaction in terms of its delivery, but I was homeschooled and started college early. I was the stereotypical socially inept homeschooler. The class was introduction to college algebra, which doesn’t usually cover logarithms AFAIK; I brought them up unprompted during a quiet moment when the teacher was cleaning the whiteboard. I was curious about them because I had been reading my older brother’s textbooks and found them interesting.

The other student’s complaint about me was that I monopolized the teacher’s attention by sitting front and center and raising my hand for every question. Additionally she felt that I was trying to show off. At that point I was also very visibly younger than everyone else, which did occasionally annoy people. (This became less of an issue when I hit puberty and started growing a beard.)

But I was oblivious to those kinds of things at the time and didn’t realize I was having any kind of impact on anyone else in the class until the other student chastised me. Perhaps it was an overreaction, but the message was one I needed to hear, I think.

Also, to their credit, that student did apologize to me, more calmly expressing the nature of their grievances; I apologized in turn and said that I would try to be less disruptive.

When I was in my first year of college - 26 years ago - I asked a question about logarithms and was thoroughly, angrily (and, looking back on the event, probably justifiably) reamed out by another student about it.

I don’t think I publicly spoke up for the rest of that class.

edit: Remove extra words.

So I did. Corrected, thank you.

Perhaps so, but in my case I was referring to this John Mulaney sketch.

edit: As observed below, I messed up the link formatting. Fixed now.

Probably subsequent to a secondary location.

Hey now, no stealing my thunder.

… Just kidding. I support improving the day of anyone you can. Supporting a choice they made, like a user icon, is a great way to do so; recognizing an obscure reference they made, even better (IMHO). You rock!

I don’t really know you well enough to say, but clearly you’re committed to the fediverse as an active participant. As a less active but very interested member of the same 'verse, I’m grateful for your contributions.

A long time ago when reddit wasn’t as noticably awful, I read a comment there pointing out that while women receive lots of questionably-motivated compliments from thirsty men, men themselves rarely receive compliments and even a passing one can change someone’s day. I’m a man and can confirm at least the second half of that.

Since then, I’ve done my best to flatter anyone - whether presenting as man or woman - who does anything that stands out (I try not to comment on something that wasn’t a conscious decision, like body parts). Loud shirt? Awesome! Unnaturally colored hair? I love it! Something that took effort, like a perm? You know I’m expressing my approval. Especially in a situation where I’m just passing by someone I’ll never see again and therefore (hopefully) obviously not trying to get something from them.

I like to think I’ve improved some people’s days with this policy. One of my favorite memories is of a situation where I demonstrably did so (I’ve actually referenced it on Lemmy before, a long time ago).

edit: Remove unneeded words.

Monkeys aren’t donkeys. Quit messing with my head!

Probably it’s against policy or something like that.

Unless you’re looking to get your steps in.

They’re rocks, Marie!

… Wait, that’s not right.

Lyndon B. Johnson, who loved to show his Johnson.

Thank you for the answer and openness. I’m not sure of anything specific I can wish you in that regard, but good general luck.

You guys are interesting. All of my dreams are about fighting God and falling off bridges.

What happens if you have caffeine?

I cannot decide whether I’d call my parents classy. I don’t think they were deficient in that manner but I’m not sure whether they had a lot, either.

My parent’s kitchen floor was a similar design but a. linoleum and b. way, way more yellow.

I think memorizing everything is a great habit. Maybe not the best with no backup, but still great.