Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar • Hacker News Board

Re: Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar

#151

Post by shawn_w » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 6:56 PM UTC

stackghost wrote: post #46

jordanb wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah and it's really interesting watching people try to come up with alternate explanations. The people who rule us can't be this mid, otherwise the very concept of meritocracy is bunk. Or at the very least, the things we tell ourselves are meritorious are not what actually what causes people to rise to the top of our society. By the way I'm also astonished by their lack of taste. The Epstein properties give off a si…

>The people who rule us can't be this mid, otherwise the very concept of meritocracy is bunk. It is bunk. Nobody who has even a modicum of critical thinking ability thinks that Donald Trump or Elon Musk are geniuses. Luck and circumstance are an immense part of success.

Having rich parents is probably the biggest part.

Re: Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar

#152

Post by janalsncm » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 6:57 PM UTC

> But in another instance, Epstein was critical of misspelling. A contact forwarded the sex offender his daughter’s college application in 2013. “I wish you had let me review before sending…the grammatical errors and spelling mistakes will make it at least harder for early admission,” Epstein wrote.

It is funny that spelling and grammar matter more when writing to an admissions officer than to a potential business partner. But it’s also funny to imagine a world where you could send in an essay with a bunch of typos and grammar mistakes and expect it not to influence your application.

Spelling and grammar matter in the sense that they are a signal that you know a complicated and somewhat arbitrary set of rules and have agreed to follow them.

Re: Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar

#153

Post by tracker1 » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 6:58 PM UTC

radpanda wrote: post #110

bluepeter wrote: post #22

British aristocracy has been pronouncing their own surnames wrong for centuries on purpose. Cholmondeley is "Chumley" Featherstonehaugh is "Fanshaw." If you read it phonetically you mark yourself as an outsider. The misstake is the membership card. (Heck, even in Portland we locals hear about misprouncing Couch St probably every year in local press as some bar for membership to our own locals only vibe.)

I don't really see that as the same thing as what the article was pointing out. Those are shibboleths that only an insider would know. You have to get the pronunciation of Cholmondeley or Couch "right" to pass for an insider. The random misspellings, missing spaces, sloppy grammar, etc in the examples in the article seem different to me. Misspelling "en route" as "enriewu" doesn't show, "look, I know the secret count…

I don't necessarily think it's that... it's just a matter of a rush to respond/send quickly and not take a lot of time. It's pretty easy to either fat-finger when typing on a keyboard, or gesture input on a phone to get the wrong word and you hit send before realizing.

Sometimes I'll notice right after, delete and re-reply (social media) other times I'll just let it be... It's pedantic busy bodies that will single you out for a typo as opposed to discussing the idea at hand.

Re: Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar

#154

Post by cj » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 7:00 PM UTC

RamblingCTO wrote: post #31

ryandrake wrote: post #15

I think a more likely reason, that for some reason, a lot of people don't want to talk about, is that these "Global Elite" aren't really that smart, creative, or articulate. That they've gotten to where they are despite, not because of their communication skills. They're not being "typical unconventional / quirky entrepreneurs." They're simply C students who knew the right people.

or efficiency is more important because you have a high load of people you need to interact with. I was a grammer nazi back in the day but stopped caring because the ROI is minimal and I've got shit to do that's more important. so maybe it's the same for them

And then there are people who go out of their way to disable iOS's automatic capitalization feature.

Re: Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar

#155

Post by steveklabnik » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 7:00 PM UTC

AdamN wrote: post #56

bluepeter wrote: post #22

British aristocracy has been pronouncing their own surnames wrong for centuries on purpose. Cholmondeley is "Chumley" Featherstonehaugh is "Fanshaw." If you read it phonetically you mark yourself as an outsider. The misstake is the membership card. (Heck, even in Portland we locals hear about misprouncing Couch St probably every year in local press as some bar for membership to our own locals only vibe.)

Same as Texans asking where Houston Street is in NYC.

And likewise, Austin has a bunch of names that are pronounced oddly.

Re: Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar

#156

Post by stackghost » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 7:01 PM UTC

otterley wrote: post #102

vardalab wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Look at just the most recent conflict in Middle East. You think they would have freaking gamed out potential scenarios using AI or whatnot? Looks like nobody gamed out anything. It's all just seat of the pants.

The military has performed countless simulations and “what-if” exercises and thoroughly documented each one. They knew a war with Iran without boots on the ground doesn’t end with a decisive victory. Trump chose to ignore them and press ahead anyway. You can’t really understand Trump’s decisions unless you understand that despite all evidence to the contrary, Trump himself truly believes he is the smartest person in…

>Trump himself truly believes he is the smartest person in the room, regardless of who else is in it; and he will not suffer anyone who dares to contradict him.

I actually believe he has a crippling inferiority complex, which is why he leans so hard into bluster and bravado, why he surrounds himself with incompetent sycophants, and also why he's so vicious at even a hint of being slighted.

I think he probably knows, deep down, that he's mid at best and his most deep-seated fear is being perceived as insufficiently masculine, intelligent, powerful, wealthy, etc.

Re: Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar

#157

Post by tracker1 » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 7:02 PM UTC

rkomorn wrote: post #91

jpfromlondon wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America is at least as guilty of mispronouncing non-english words it's just natural drift. As to fillet and valet, they joined english before the contemporary french pronunciation, and are much closer to the middle-french.

I'm always amused by some mispronunciations that stray farther away from the original than necessary. My favorite is probably crepe, which Americans pronounce like an almost diphthong-y craype (or crape like grape I guess) when crep (like step) would do just fine and be closer to the original. But as a native French and basically-native American speaker, I also couldn't really care less about it, or about things like…

The plural is what gets me though crepes (just sounds weird as krehps vs krayps).

Re: Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar

#158

Post by shawn_w » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 7:02 PM UTC

mmooss wrote: post #87

bluGill wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

touch screen phones are a useful compromise. If I'm going to write a lot I want a real keyboard and large monitor with all the features thereof. However often I just need a quick note and I'm not in the office. I would not carry a desktop computer to the airport (I'm old enough to remember the IBM XT luggable computer - built in CRT monitor, not battery: it was portable, but it was a real workout). A laptop is someti…

Phones (really, the pocket/handheld form factor) are a necessity and are limited; I agree. We could deliver better text input interfaces for them. For heavy typers, physical keyboards in candybar phones (.e.g, old Blackberrys, etc.) and landscape-oriented clamshells fix many issues, but those are outre for some reason. Even on-screen UIs could be better. Just arrow keys to move to the cursor precisely would be a sign…

The first Android phone had a physical keyboard and a little trackball. The rest of the phone was a bit anemic even by the standards of the time but those two features were glorious.

Re: Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar

#159

Post by andai » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 7:04 PM UTC

radpanda wrote: post #110

bluepeter wrote: post #22

British aristocracy has been pronouncing their own surnames wrong for centuries on purpose. Cholmondeley is "Chumley" Featherstonehaugh is "Fanshaw." If you read it phonetically you mark yourself as an outsider. The misstake is the membership card. (Heck, even in Portland we locals hear about misprouncing Couch St probably every year in local press as some bar for membership to our own locals only vibe.)

I don't really see that as the same thing as what the article was pointing out. Those are shibboleths that only an insider would know. You have to get the pronunciation of Cholmondeley or Couch "right" to pass for an insider. The random misspellings, missing spaces, sloppy grammar, etc in the examples in the article seem different to me. Misspelling "en route" as "enriewu" doesn't show, "look, I know the secret count…

>It simply shows that you don't have to care about your mistakes.

Interesting, is that the equivalent of billionaires wearing sweatpants?

Re: Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar

#160

Post by ordu » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 7:04 PM UTC

RandallBrown wrote: post #85

potsandpans wrote: post #71

nowadays, if you have correct spelling and grammar people accuse you of being an llm.

I end all of my sentences with periods and I was told that I have a negative attitude at work because of it. Seriously, my manager's advice was to stop ending my sentences with periods.

IIRC there was some psychological paper claiming that periods at the end of chat messages are bearing some emotional signal. I don't remember what it was exactly. I suppose your manager was too much into shitty psychological research.