"There are only two hard problems in Computer Science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors."

Wow, I can't believe people use this.

Twitter has done some amazing Jedi mind tricks to convince the media that it has a place in that sentence.

Most telling quote: As long as it doesn't require me to do any math, I will write anything.

Raise the rates on bulk mail. There's so much of it that it's clearly priced too low.

I, who dropped out of CompSci after my first year, was a small-time shadow scholar.

It started innocently enough: I wasn't working, and a friend of a friend who was doing her Master's (in Education, wouldn't you know) needed help typing and formatting a document according to APA Style. I needed the money, so I visited her at the school where she worked. I took the draft she had penned and started reading.

I nearly vomited.

The quality of writing was atrocious. It wasn't just 'bad', or 'needing improvement'. It was shockingly, horrifyingly terrible.

Poor structure. Poor grammar. Not answering the question. excessive circumlocution. Hackneyed phrases every other sentence.

I diplomatically told her that I would 'change some of the words'. As she dictated and I typed, I changed sentence order and modified her word choices. When it was finished, there was a semblance of respectability. A few days later, I heard that the lecturer loved it.

That, dear friend, was the beginning. I completed quite a few assignments for her, but stopped after she started quibbling over the already small fee I charged. (Note to self: Always charge what you're worth.)

Sometime later, a neighbour in my building called me upstairs to help a friend of his. She was typing a paper for her degree to submit that evening, and he, knowing my language skills and typing speed wanted me to help. I went, sat down, and read.

Oh, dear.

I told her that in all honesty, it sucked. I made a few changes, typed up the rest. 'Twas enough for her to get hooked.

Over the next two years, I did several assignments for her. It got to where she would simply email me the research question, and I'd 'learn' the subject (yes, in 2 hours), get references, and like 'Ed Dante' divide the paper into sections, and prepare material. I could do a 10 page paper in one day, which would probably net a 90% grade or better. This was after never having heard of the topic before. She would get wonderful comments from lecturers about her 'wonderful exposition' and 'excellent analysis'. This from a girl who, although not dunce, could never verbally put sentences together half that well. I often wondered about the intellectual prowess, or lack thereof, of her teachers.

It's a smug feeling, walking around as a college dropout while knowing that you can run intellectual circles around people with graduate degrees. I should note, though, that these were all humanities subjects: Use 10 words where 1 would suffice and make up some bullshit, and you're good to go. It doesn't have to make sense because Most teachers aren't going to read it anyway!

For those of us here on HN, who are in all probability above the average, it might be difficult to understand how stupid most people are; but take it from me: they are. Very.

I'm done with it now, though. I hated researching stuff that bored me, although I sometimes learned a lot. The most important lesson?

The world is bullshit.

http://www.designobserver.com/observatory/entry.html?entry=3...