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Comment by brian-armstrong | Hacker News Reader

It seems obvious to us, but computer literacy in out country (and the world) is quite low. I think this underlines how bad it is. Can you imagine if the English literacy rate were only a few %? It wouldn't be uncommon to hear of people doing strange things since they wouldn't be able to read warning signs.

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You're right, but it is depressing.

I find it akin to hiring a librarian who cannot read. Either because they're cheap, or they have the right friends.

In this case, I think it's probably because most librarians can't read, or at least many in publicly funded libraries. It's hard to point to one illiterate librarian when their colleagues are also illiterate.

> Can you imagine if the English literacy rate were only a few %

People would start to confuse "your" and "you're" or "its" and "it's".

Quite a scary thought.

We would definitely be lead into the abyss.

> People would start to confuse "your" and "you're" or "its" and "it's".

I am genuinely trying to determine if this is a joke. :) People already do confuse those! I have unfortunately seen many arguments on Facebook over the correct usage.

Since I was downvoted, you're not the only one who fails to detect e-sarcasm :-)

I think the point is this is not reddit, jokes not very constructive in a debate, however funny.

:) In hindsight it should have been pretty obvious haha.

This is pretty much almost already the case for mathematics; understanding of basic mathematical concepts in the general public is piss poor. No one is up in arms about that.

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