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Privilege is bad grammar

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Re: Privilege is bad grammar

#271

Post by AbstractH24 »

apparent wrote: post #47

I think this isn't quite what "privilege" means, at least these days. People talk about "white privilege" for example, meaning that people who are white can do XYZ or avoid ABC, unlike other people. In the example the author writes about, the privilege is not "being a bag grammar person", it's being a high-ranking person. The bad grammar is the thing that those people are able to get away with. IMO, he's confusing th…

Yeah, if they are using the term "privilege" in the way that its used in pop-culture this post lost me.

Re: Privilege is bad grammar

#272

Post by jgwil2 »

zharknado wrote: post #248
StevenWaterman wrote: post #4

This is almost textbook countersignalling. The same as: - Signalling: I dress more formally than everyone else to make up for the fact I'm less professional in other ways - No signalling: I dress like everyone else because I am like everyone else - Countersignalling: I wear ratty old clothes with holes in them, and nobody will dare to question it because I'm the important one here

Alternative hypothesis—-efficiency. Executives are very, very busy. As long as you can figure out what they mean, polish doesn’t add much. (Unless it does because it’s an earnings call, board meeting, etc.) I’m quite convinced in most cases they are not spending time or energy consciously choosing to signal anything about status. They’re just not willing to pay the opportunity cost of keeping their attention on an in…

The examples in the article are conspicuously unpolished. Autocorrect catches all of this stuff nowadays. Somebody had to make an effort to write that badly.

Re: Privilege is bad grammar

#273

Post by NoGravitas »

Aloisius wrote: post #241
StevenWaterman wrote: post #4

This is almost textbook countersignalling. The same as: - Signalling: I dress more formally than everyone else to make up for the fact I'm less professional in other ways - No signalling: I dress like everyone else because I am like everyone else - Countersignalling: I wear ratty old clothes with holes in them, and nobody will dare to question it because I'm the important one here

It reads like textbook mind reading to me. The author does not actually know why people write with poor spelling/grammar nor truly how others would interpret them writing with with poor spelling/grammar. They have a guess, but there are any number of alternate reasons why someone might write poorly. They could be technologically illiterate, fat fingered, easily frustrated, mirroring their children, need glasses, care…

I think it's less mind-reading than looking for a sociological explanation.

That said, I think a big underlying cause is that Business Idiots [1] are, in fact, idiots. Even so, it's worth looking for a sociological explanation of why Being An Idiot doesn't hurt Business Idiots like it would hurt the rest of us.

[1]: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-era-of-the-business-idiot/

Re: Privilege is bad grammar

#274

Post by NoGravitas »

spiritplumber wrote: post #221
StevenWaterman wrote: post #4

This is almost textbook countersignalling. The same as: - Signalling: I dress more formally than everyone else to make up for the fact I'm less professional in other ways - No signalling: I dress like everyone else because I am like everyone else - Countersignalling: I wear ratty old clothes with holes in them, and nobody will dare to question it because I'm the important one here

I'm just glad ties are gone. I used to have it in my consulting contract that I would wear a tie for a maximum of x hours for the duration of the project, so choose them well. It used to be a point of negotiation, now nobody cares anymore.

If a tie is uncomfortable, the problem isn't the tie, it's that your shirt doesn't fit.

Re: Privilege is bad grammar

#275

Post by [deleted] »

LAC-Tech wrote: post #249
bananaflag wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Languages can and do alter because of peoples prescriptivist ideas. You are right, but that comes also from a descriptivist perspective. And a linguist would study what sort of prescriptions stick and what sort don't. When linguists say they aren't prescriptivists, they don't say prescriptivism doesn't work, they just say their job is not about deciding whether to say football or soccer.

Right I am probably being sloppy with my terminology. It's more notions that there is no such thing as "good grammar" is just tiresome. We can argue the rules are somewhat arbitrary, but that does not change how people might perceive you.

[deleted]

Re: Privilege is bad grammar

#276

Post by NoGravitas »

asveikau wrote: post #142

Many people point to the bad spelling and grammar of these powerful, abusive people and they say wow, that's a flex. My own reaction is more like these people are stupid . It's not power that makes them write poorly. They're not capable of getting it right. Look at what Noam Chomsky wrote to Epstein as a contrast. Multiple paragraphs and usually coherent. He makes Epstein look dumb. (Which he was.) I don't support wh…

The thing is that "being an idiot" would have consequences for you; it doesn't have consequences for them.

Re: Privilege is bad grammar

#278

Post by mikepurvis »

burntalmonds wrote: post #115
mikepurvis wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"sent from my iphone"

There needs to be a new sig like "Written by Claude" or something. I'd rather somebody just openly admits it.

At least for now, there remain lots of signals that are clear to those with sufficient exposure; from the piece linked in the Oxide LLM doc that was recently discussed here:

"... to anyone who has seen even a modicum of LLM-generated content (a rapidly expanding demographic!), the LLM tells are impossible to ignore. Bluntly, your intellectual fly is open: lots of people notice — but no one is pointing it out."

https://bcantrill.dtrace.org/2025/12/05/your-intellectual-fl...

Re: Privilege is bad grammar

#279

Post by marcellus23 »

LambdaComplex wrote: post #107
illusive4080 wrote: post #83

It’s because the higher you are in the chain of corporate command, the less time you have to dedicate to each task. You end up with shorter answers to every note because you wouldn’t have time to reply to all notes and do the strategic things you need to do, otherwise. As an individual contributor on a team, you may have to interface at most with 30 people on a weekly basis. As a second line leader you may have 150 p…

Using the example from the article: "K let circle back nxt week bout it . thnks" I'm not buying your argument. The amount of additional time that it would have taken to write that same message with proper grammar and spelling is minuscule.

I'm not sure that's a literal quote from their boss. It seems to be an illustrative example, probably exaggerated.

Re: Privilege is bad grammar

#280

Post by weirdmantis69 »

One anecdote about Bill Gates is he was in the Bahamas perhaps to purchase some real estate and he was dressed very down to the point where he looked like a bum. He went into a local real estate office where the lady was dressed in a suit and to the 9's despite it being 40 degrees outside. And she went and told him that real estate was expensive in the Bahamas and he needed a lot of money to buy to which he replied "I might be able to work something out you never know". So ya the super rich don't need to sound good or look good they simply have money.
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