Hacker News Reader

Or drop the gender altogether: "A good CEO knows their values." Grammar cops hate the use of the collective pronoun where a singular would be more correct, but I see it used often enough that it's slowly working it's way into the English language.

In Ben's case, he's making a political statement, so the use of "her" is appropriate in that instance though.

> it's slowly working it's way into the English language

It's actually been in English for a pretty long time, there is plenty of precedent. The people that complain loudest about grammar "mistakes" are often the least equipped to talk about them.

I'm not opposed to this, however I didn't realized having your pronouns disagree in number with your nouns had become generally accepted.

A singular form of "they" has long been used in English writing. Even Shakespeare used it.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Singular_they

That said, constructions like "didn't realized" are best avoided.

You're missing the point.