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Comment by georgeecollins | Hacker News Reader

I agree but I would cut the OP some slack on the writing for a forum post. I know I have dashed off things here that could use some proof reading. But the gist of what you are saying makes sense to me.

Going back to college seems like a good idea as a general direction.

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The GP has put a "your" instead of "you're" in (almost) the very next sentence, so you don't even need to point to your own mistakes to illustrate your point...

> The GP has put a "your" instead of "you're" in (almost) the very next sentence

Correctly so

I think GP might be a bit hard on writing style. I know plenty of succesful software engineers with poor writing abilities, and realistically my own are far from great. However your vs you're is the type of grammar mistake that really does not matter. Nobody is going to be confused by it. Writing structure is much more important.

Edit: also looking back, GP used your correctly, so wut?

That was my initial reaction, but the "your" is actually correct there:

> Your applying to those companies with 0 experience or college degree is unrealistic.

The clause "applying to..." is possessed by "your".

Or, more directly, “your applying [...] is unrealistic”.

Agree, both "you're" and "your" are correct with different perspectives.

Nope, only "your" is correct in this case. "You're" would require a slight rewording, something like:

> You're applying to those companies with 0 experience or college degree, which is unrealistic.

</pedantry>

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