Tem42 comments on Instrumental Rationality Questions Thread - Less Wrong

14 Post author: AspiringRationalist 22 August 2015 08:25PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (92)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: zedzed 23 August 2015 12:54:29AM *  -1 points [-]

In that case, "it's" is a contraction equivalent to "it is". For a possessive, use "its".

Examples:

Practical advice from its members.

and

It's inspired by the stupid questions.

(What's the point of paying attention to this stuff if you're communicating clearly? Briefly, signalling. If I notice you've made a grammatical error, on average, I estimate you're less well educated or not invested in making the writing worth my while than in the opposite case, and am less likely to finish reading if I get bored or have to expend mental effort to understand what you're saying or something. Also, there's an aesthetic element: error-free writing is, ceter paribus, more pleasing to read.)

(Also, wondering if this was downvoted because someone thinks I'm incorrect, because they think I'm being an ass, or for some other reason.)

Comment author: Tem42 23 August 2015 05:33:10PM 2 points [-]

In general, I would assume that a private message would be more appropriate than a post.

Comment author: Creutzer 24 August 2015 08:51:02AM *  2 points [-]

Obligatory cynicism: But then you don't get social status for being right, so there's not incentive to do it.