6 ms·
Mackenzie Scott has a name, and the title/headline should use it, instead of her “status” as Bezos’ “ex-wife”.
by gonzo 6y ago
Mackenzie Scott has a name, and the title/headline should use it, instead of her “status” as Bezos’ “ex-wife”.
- TechBro8615 6y ago> Macenzie Scott You could start by spelling it correctly.
- pelender 6y agoI get your point, and I don't mean to be insulting to her as a person, but the reality is that her name recognition is essentially non-existent compared to Bezos. That doesn't make her less important or valuable as a person, but it's highly relevant to a newspaper headline writer who is trying to orient their reader in as few words as possible.
- threatofrain 6y ago> MacKenzie Scott Gives $1.7 Billion to Historically Black Colleges and Other Groups
- fortran77 6y agoToo long. I tried it. And with just her name people wouldn't remember who she was. Don't assume motive.
- threatofrain 6y agoThe person above is talking about a newspaper headline writer. Are you assuming motives in communication while telling people not to? I’m clarifying that the NYT article author didn’t write the current title. Why are you taking that as a value judgment?
- fortran77 6y agoI posted this link. I was unable to come up with a title that included her name, the fact that she was Bezos' ex-wife, and who she donated a very large sum of money to, whereas the original long title did.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- threatofrain 6y ago> I really don't understand people like you who never read the articles and just comment on the title. Why are you here? I quoted the original snippet to show the NYT author's original headline. Why are you still assuming motives instead of just talking to people?
- tropdrop 6y agoThe way you can do both - i.e. giver her a name, since she has enough accomplishments in her own right to be named, but also indicate she is Bezos' ex-wife for those who do not know is like this: Mackenzie Scott (Bezos' ex-wife) gives $1.7B to.. This ensures that in the future she might have enough name recognition to no longer be relegated to "Bezos' ex-wife," and one day we might make the () fall away. To demonstrate this is true, we can turn to a lower celebrity, Mark Anthony. He tended to be referenced in publications like this: Mark Anthony, Jennifer Lopez's husband... However, at this point, he has enough name recognition that a lot of publications will no longer mention it in the title.
- hiram112 6y ago> ...since she has enough accomplishments in her own right to be named... I've never been interested in this woman, nor did I know anything about her previously. But just from her very brief Wikipedia, here are the highlights: * Born into super wealthy family * Sent to Pre-Ivy league boarding school in Connecticut * Studies at elitist Ivy League university (Princeton) and graduates with pseudo-degree of 'English'. * Meets Jeff Bezos while working the typical elitist hedge fund starter job in Manhattan. They get married! ... lots of years pass * divorces Jeff Bezos, becomes one of world's richest persons * donates a fraction of the money she won in divorce. Wow, a true American by-the-bootstraps dream. Certainly, it is sexist to refer to her as "Jeff Bezos' wife" based on her many many individual accomplishments.
- lexs 6y agoWhat is a pseudo-degree?
- tropdrop 6y agoThis person considers any degree outside their personal preference of "important" degrees a pseudo-degree. I am guessing this personal preference probably closely aligns with whatever is currently considered "job-ready" degrees, and ignores the historical context in which some degrees used to be much less valued than presently. For instance, a degree in math (the M in STEM) used to be considered a dead-end for a job, except to teach primary school, and was very female-dominated. This was true to such an extent that it was women who did most of the ballistics computing during WWII [1]. Many others invented new processes, like Grace Hopper, who designed the first compiler for a programming language. Sometime after the widespread media attention around the first personal computers - and who they were marketed for - this trend reversed, so that by the 1990s computing became seen as a "male" interest, and thus came to be dominated by men. Notably, this media interest was a Western phenomenon, which is why you'll encounter a lot of female Russian or Indian programmers working for American companies that are trying to boost their quotas of "diversity." Another example of a reversal of trends of "real" degrees is aerospace engineering, a degree which used to be very lucrative (with the end goal working for any of the companies affiliated with the cold-war era space race). But when the United States decided to shut down their space program, a lot of these engineers lost jobs fast, and newly minted graduates could find no work. 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_computing#1940s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_computing#1940s
- gonzo 6y ago“Bezos’ ex-wife” is one letter shorter than “MacKinzie Scott”. Drop the “and”, use a comma. “, others.”
- bryanlarsen 6y agoNot many people can give away $1.7B. If I saw that headline with an unrecognized name I'd be more likely to click through than less.
- animal_spirits 6y agoHonestly I saw a headline earlier today using Mackenzie Scott, and I had no idea who that was until I saw this post on hackernews. My only reaction was - "Who's Mackenzie Scott? Well, thats good whoever she is". Now I know who she is
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- aogaili 6y agoI have a feeling Bezos would not have gotten that far without her. I know nothing about her, but I suspect she is had a lot of influence on his success. She seems to have a strong character.
- dangArino 6y agoand where did she get the money to donate?
- tanderson92 6y agoShe co-founded a business.
- iaw 6y agoShe was a critical founding member of one of the largest retailers on earth.
- kerng 6y agoShe helped build Amazon. Currently 19th richest person in the world.
- rexreed 6y agoThe original article title has her name in it, spelled correctly. The current HN post title ironically misspells Bezos' name anyways. So double wham for this one.
- kerng 6y agoEspecially since the original newspaper article actually uses her name
- fermienrico 6y agoI can't believe the majority of the comments in this thread is about her name and the title. Can we get past this pedantry please? She has done amazing work and that's not being discussed. I would also be fine if the situation was flipped, "Mackenzie's husband donates $1.7B funds for charity" if we knew Mackenzie as the face of one of the largest companies and a household name.
- mc32 6y agoI don't see a problem with it -except the original title has her unmarried name, so I agree the title should bear that. That said, you reference a person by a well known marker, if they're not publicly well-recognized. The ex-CEO of Nasty Gal, Tim Cook's ex-husband, Kamala Harris's husband (etc). It's no big deal.
- fortran77 6y agoThere's a character limit on HN titles.
- sdinsn 6y agoEveryone has a name, but not every name is recognizable to the average person.
- supercanuck 6y agoAnd never will be unless her name is used. She co-founded Amazon. She did good works, she deserves the credit
- ornornor 6y agoCame here to say that :)