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Ask HN: How Many of You Are Like Me?

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Re: Ask HN: How Many of You Are Like Me?

#71

Post by knowledgesale »

EwanG wrote: post #30
notyourwork wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Google cone of learning." I am not familiar with this phrase. Can someone explain?

On the off chance you're serious (and I know folks sometimes have a hard time differentiating between very subtle sarcasm and true newbiehood): You are being directed to go to Google (or other search engine of choice) and enter the phrase "Cone of Learning". You should get a result similar to the following: http://www.google.com/search?q=cone+of+learning&ie=utf-8...

by the way, this is what kills me in English language. How can you tell the verb from the noun? Or in some cases the adjective from the noun? Or how can you figure out the relationship between the verb and the attached passive noun without the grammatical case mechanism?

I understand the way it works in English intellectually but not too comfortable with all these ambiguities intuitively.

Re: Ask HN: How Many of You Are Like Me?

#72

Post by JesseAldridge »

geoffw8 wrote: post #37
SamReidHughes wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd have better success if you showed some respect for your readers by capitalizing and writing your posts in a normal style. Starting off with "lol" and an emoticon marks you as somebody who hasn't thought about what he is about to write, and who doesn't care to present his thoughts to the reader in an organized manner. In your comment history, other posts have it worse, and your writing style and mannerisms make…

> You'd have better success if you showed some respect for your readers by capitalizing and writing your posts in a normal style. Starting off with "lol" and an emoticon marks you as somebody who hasn't thought about what he is about to write, and who doesn't care to present his thoughts to the reader in an organized manner. That is the biggest pile of bs I have ever read. Just because he starts his posts with a lol,…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_(economics)

Attention is a scarce resource. Acting like a fool is correlated with actually being a fool. People are less likely to take a comment seriously when a cursory examination suggests that it's a waste of space. Maybe that's not the way it should be, but that's the way it is.

Re: Ask HN: How Many of You Are Like Me?

#73

Post by markkat »

gnaritas wrote: post #45
geoffw8 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You'd have better success if you showed some respect for your readers by capitalizing and writing your posts in a normal style. Starting off with "lol" and an emoticon marks you as somebody who hasn't thought about what he is about to write, and who doesn't care to present his thoughts to the reader in an organized manner. That is the biggest pile of bs I have ever read. Just because he starts his posts with a lol,…

> What you've done is no different to this scenario - your at school, your one of the popular guys But this is exactly the kind of thing he's referring to, sloppy writing and sloppy grammar generally mean sloppy thinking. If you're going to take the time to write something, you must want it to be read; have respect for your reader and use proper capitalization, punctuation, and correct contractions. There are a lot o…

I have to disagree. Some very intelligent people struggle with writing.

I can understand skipping a comment over poor grammar. But if you are going to vote, I think you ought to consider the content over the form.

Re: Ask HN: How Many of You Are Like Me?

#74

Post by mkr-hn »

jarek wrote: post #70
mkr-hn wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think words like "proper" are what throw a lot of people. It brings up images of a grumpy English teacher. But natural language is like a programming language. If you start tossing brackets and semicolons all over the place, it won't compile, and it won't make much sense. Things like grammar and spelling are the syntax of natural language, and failing to make sure you're close to the norm is a good way to throw an…

The root comment compiled perfectly. The grammar was understandable and the logic reasonably sound. The only deviations from the gold standard of natural English are: 1) "lol"; 2) ";]"; 3) lack of capitalization on some words. That is much closer to whitespace conventions than tossing brackets and semicolons all over the place.

I think #3 is the sticking point. I can read it, but a lifetime of reading has trained me to use capitalization past a period and space as a prompt to some sort of change. The lack of it makes a paragraph read like an unbroken sentence to me.

It slows me down considerably.

I'm not defending or agreeing with the complaint, just trying to find the reasoning behind one of the positions. I think people should step back and see what's actually bothering them about the writing (or if there's anything fundamentally bothersome at all).

Re: Ask HN: How Many of You Are Like Me?

#75

Post by markkat »

charleso wrote: post #22

Active reader here, but I avoid commenting. Whenever I do, I seem to find myself caring too much about the responses. This leads me to returning again and again to a thread I've already learned from and replying to responses in an attempt to clarify my position. Before I know it, a half-hour has passed to no benefit. Since arrows tend to be clicked to reflect a worldview which conforms to a reader's own and not to pr…

I agree about getting too involved in the responses. We are strange creatures. :)

Re: Ask HN: How Many of You Are Like Me?

#76

Post by dustingetz »

geoffw8 wrote: post #37
SamReidHughes wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd have better success if you showed some respect for your readers by capitalizing and writing your posts in a normal style. Starting off with "lol" and an emoticon marks you as somebody who hasn't thought about what he is about to write, and who doesn't care to present his thoughts to the reader in an organized manner. In your comment history, other posts have it worse, and your writing style and mannerisms make…

> You'd have better success if you showed some respect for your readers by capitalizing and writing your posts in a normal style. Starting off with "lol" and an emoticon marks you as somebody who hasn't thought about what he is about to write, and who doesn't care to present his thoughts to the reader in an organized manner. That is the biggest pile of bs I have ever read. Just because he starts his posts with a lol,…

conversational tone signals that he just wrote a one-off sentence. more formal tone signals that his thoughts were revised and thought through.

Re: Ask HN: How Many of You Are Like Me?

#77

Post by jarek »

Mz wrote: post #23
frevd wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

fortunately this is not a strict coders' forum as far as i'm concerned - i appreciate all kinds of people with varying experience from diverse sectors, after all this is what information exchange is about, and more variance adds to a broader and more objective view, lots of fun and more information (and entropy for that matter). in fact i don't even believe there is a specific topic other than things that are obvious…

Of course it is not a strict coders forum. Even simply being female makes me very much a minority here and I have seen a number of posts from women who cite that as an obstacle to effective participation. I like getting a diversity of views and feedback/information. It is one of the reasons I work hard on coming across politely and respectfully when speaking with people who have strongly different views from mine: It…

"As for speaking English as a second language: Stating up front "please forgive my English" seems to work pretty well to smooth things over for some members here."

This isn't my discussion and so I apologize for potentially butting in, but being an ESL speaker myself it bothers me a bit to see ESL writers apologize for their English. I'm not sure if this is unique to those who are ESL themselves, but I find distinguishing between an ESL writer and a sloppy native writer trivial. If it's at a point where it causes problems communicating, we'll know it's because English isn't your first language, and we know the writer would rather not make these mistakes - no need to apologize.

As for conveying sarcasm in short posts on the internet, the difficulty is far from limited to ESL writers.

Re: Ask HN: How Many of You Are Like Me?

#78

Post by zackattack »

Are you serious?

"I've learned more from the community than I did during my $100,000 MBA from the University of Chicago."

You weren't out meeting people and making awesome connections?

You didn't build relationships with the brilliant professors?

I am shocked by the content of your post.

What have you learned on Hacker News? And then what did you learn at Booth?

I would pay to read that write-up.

Re: Ask HN: How Many of You Are Like Me?

#79

Post by kraggp »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #56
geoffw8 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You'd have better success if you showed some respect for your readers by capitalizing and writing your posts in a normal style. Starting off with "lol" and an emoticon marks you as somebody who hasn't thought about what he is about to write, and who doesn't care to present his thoughts to the reader in an organized manner. That is the biggest pile of bs I have ever read. Just because he starts his posts with a lol,…

> Just because he starts his posts with a lol, and a smiley mean NOTHING. Actually it means a lot. When you read, your neurons get tingled. How this happens is affected by writing style. Not everybody has the time or energy to be a hyperrationalist information absorber that processes data into the same thing irrespective of the order and manner it arrives. edit: I think you've misinterpreted my post if you think I sa…

The pseudo-intellectualism that permeates this board is a little appalling. I can certainly assure you that C-level executives across Silicon Valley backed by the strongest VCs and beyond write in a much less formal manner than most people on HN. Nothing wrong with that.

Re: Ask HN: How Many of You Are Like Me?

#80

Post by jfields »

cfaubell wrote: post #52

> How many of you soak up all this knowledge like it's nicotine but don't comment much or post at all? That perfectly describes my relationship with Hacker News. As another first time commentor but long time lurker, I'd like to thank those of you who do comment. You've created a truly great resource.

My relationship with Hacker News is also much like this.

I have made exactly three comments before this one, and they were almost a year ago. If not for those, I might not have even created an account here. I just have the type of personality that enjoys taking in knowledge more than discussing it.

My account at Less Wrong is similarly neglected. I often wonder how many others (on both sites) do what I do.

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