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The answer to the question the headline poses, inferring from people sampled in the article is: "They mostly end up in a English related academic position in sc

The answer to the question the headline poses, inferring from people sampled in the article is: "They mostly end up in a English related academic position in school or college setting"

Noumenon72 7y ago
Thank you, somehow the article is unskimmable and I didn't follow a single story to the end.
- mtbcoder 7y ago
  It's corporate click-bait from Dollar Shave Club. Not sure why this is on the front page of HN. Sign of the times I suppose?
  - sct202 7y ago
    I thought you were kidding and then I read their bio. What an interesting choice for a startup shaving company. I'm surprised Unilever hasn't axed it by now after they made the acquisition.
    - AstralStorm 7y ago
      It sounds like a good "old fashioned" brand - they have a few of those.
learc83 7y ago
There was a Doctor, a Bio-statistician, an attorney, and a radio reporter. There were 2 English related academics in the article (and one professor of Classics with a Ph.D. in Ancient Philosophy), so that's definitely overrepresented, but it was more diverse than I would have expected.
- bane 7y ago
  However, one might argue the non English ones require lots of memorization.
- sytelus 7y ago
  It's unfortunate the article headline is the question but there is no real conclusion drawn in the article. It's just bunch of interviews with past winners. It's apparent that Bee winners have unsurprisingly great memory capacity, ability to fast search their memory and build much finer predictor model of data they consume. So they excel at professions that requires these attributes which are pretty much all science/tech/literature/law professions.
paulcole 7y ago
As you can see from the winning words 30–50+ years ago, the Bee used to be a vocabulary contest among average people. Today it’s a test of who can commit to memorizing essentially the entire dictionary. You’re going to see a lot more high-performing doctors, lawyers, etc. in the future compared to older winners.
- sporkologist 7y ago
  I don't think they would start allowing the use of professional jargon as spelling words, such as pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. But I may be mistaken.
  - paulcole 7y ago
    That word would be of no challenge to the current top spellers. There was an 8-way tie for victory this year because the best kids are all but unstumpable. You are vastly underestimating the level of preparation that goes into competing to win the Bee. For that and other obvious reasons, Scripps is unlikely to open the word list to include any and all nonsensical jargon.
    - sporkologist 7y ago
      > nonsensical What would you consider nonsensical jargon? Jargon is jargon because it makes sense to those in that particular profession (medicine in this instance) but not to those outside it. Jargon that doesn't make sense to those who are using it is just fiddle-faddle.
      - paulcole 7y ago
        > pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis This is nonsensical.
        sporkologist 7y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilico... It is a type of silicosis, and has been around since 1935.

The answer to the question the headline poses, inferring from people sampled in the article is: "They mostly end up in a English related academic position in school or college setting"

Noumenon72 7y ago

Thank you, somehow the article is unskimmable and I didn't follow a single story to the end.

mtbcoder 7y ago
It's corporate click-bait from Dollar Shave Club. Not sure why this is on the front page of HN. Sign of the times I suppose?
- sct202 7y ago
  I thought you were kidding and then I read their bio. What an interesting choice for a startup shaving company. I'm surprised Unilever hasn't axed it by now after they made the acquisition.
  - AstralStorm 7y ago
    It sounds like a good "old fashioned" brand - they have a few of those.

learc83 7y ago

There was a Doctor, a Bio-statistician, an attorney, and a radio reporter. There were 2 English related academics in the article (and one professor of Classics with a Ph.D. in Ancient Philosophy), so that's definitely overrepresented, but it was more diverse than I would have expected.

bane 7y ago
However, one might argue the non English ones require lots of memorization.
sytelus 7y ago
It's unfortunate the article headline is the question but there is no real conclusion drawn in the article. It's just bunch of interviews with past winners. It's apparent that Bee winners have unsurprisingly great memory capacity, ability to fast search their memory and build much finer predictor model of data they consume. So they excel at professions that requires these attributes which are pretty much all science/tech/literature/law professions.

paulcole 7y ago

As you can see from the winning words 30–50+ years ago, the Bee used to be a vocabulary contest among average people. Today it’s a test of who can commit to memorizing essentially the entire dictionary. You’re going to see a lot more high-performing doctors, lawyers, etc. in the future compared to older winners.

sporkologist 7y ago
I don't think they would start allowing the use of professional jargon as spelling words, such as pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. But I may be mistaken.
- paulcole 7y ago
  That word would be of no challenge to the current top spellers. There was an 8-way tie for victory this year because the best kids are all but unstumpable. You are vastly underestimating the level of preparation that goes into competing to win the Bee. For that and other obvious reasons, Scripps is unlikely to open the word list to include any and all nonsensical jargon.
  - sporkologist 7y ago
    > nonsensical What would you consider nonsensical jargon? Jargon is jargon because it makes sense to those in that particular profession (medicine in this instance) but not to those outside it. Jargon that doesn't make sense to those who are using it is just fiddle-faddle.
    - paulcole 7y ago
      > pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis This is nonsensical.
      - sporkologist 7y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilico... It is a type of silicosis, and has been around since 1935.