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Comment by oconnore | Hacker News Reader

It takes a certain kind of person to declare that their own apology is "profound".

Profound has two meanings. You're confusing one meaning ("having great knowledge or insight") with the other ("very great or intense").

"He has profound insights on the topic of healthcare" vs. "Please accept my profound sorrow for your loss".

No. The profound in "please accept my sorrow" is a comment on the depth of your sorrow, something that you are uniquely equipped to describe. "A profound apology follows:" is a comment on how I expect my reader to interpret this message, something I am not at all equipped to describe.

I'm pretty sure Travis didn't mean that his apology was particularly insightful.

And the "profound" in "please accept my profound apology" can't likewise be a comment on the depth and sincerity of the apology, a trait the issuer is similarly uniquely equipped to describe?

Come on. I get all the backlash against Uber — the outrage they're experiencing is rightly deserved — but this is truly asinine.

I still think my initial reaction was reasonable, albeit subjective. But ya, we can stop debating semantics now.

FWIW I thought the same thing. It's an artless word choice by someone without enough experience of real life.

Synonym with deep, it's an expression of sincerity and/or being particularly heartfelt.

It is not their call to make whether the apology is sincere or heartfelt. It is for others to judge.

It's an expression. When I write something like, "My deepest condolences". I'm using a fairly standard expression. Same with, "My most heartfelt apology". Yes, the veracity of those statements will be judged in time, but it's still a common, and idiomatic, way to say things in English.

To this native English speaker it came off as self-aggrandizing.

I checked to see if maybe this is because of confirmation bias, and it looks like it might be. ;)

To this native English speaker I think you guys are splitting hairs to dig in even further to someone you don't like.

is it? it seems to me that the judgement of others doesn't make something sincere or heartfelt.

That was my take on it, too. There was nothing profound about this apology at all. On the contrary, it seems the very smallest and least controversial response he could have made.

That was the first thing that caught my attention. Travis' statement reeks of narcissism and grandiosity. The understatement is "extreme." "My job as your leader," -- it's an episode of Lost? The remedy is to behave in a way ..."that makes us all proud."

Of course, we elected a narcissistic and grandiose president, so there's nothing new here.

I think the intended meaning was that his feelings of regret and remorse are profound.

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