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I find it disturbing that the authoress seems to be motivated primarily by money, and does not mention this kind of motivation as the reason for a lot of startu
by anuraggoel 18y ago
I find it disturbing that the authoress seems to be motivated primarily by money, and does not mention this kind of motivation as the reason for a lot of startup failures.
- thomasmallen 18y ago"authoress" Seriously? "author"
- anuraggoel 18y agoI just wanted to get my facts and grammar right :-) Facts: http://jessicamah.com/blog/?page_id=2 http://jessicamah.com/blog/?page_id=2 Grammar: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/authoress http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/authoress
- thomasmallen 18y agoA word doesn't become proper by virtue of merely being defined... For what it's worth, my comment was on a PC bent. Nowadays, "waitress," "stewardess," etc. are frowned upon, and your use of "authoress" needlessly draws intention to the distinction. It's a clumsy word as well, which makes it seem that you find this distinction notable enough to decide against the far, far more common "author."
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- anuraggoel 18y agoWow, thanks. That's why I like HN. You learn something new every day.
- astrec 18y agoWhether all those words are frowned upon would largely depend on dialect (Queen's, International, American etc.) and local custom. For example, I use waitress, stewardess and actress, but never authoress or manageress. It's probably quite baffling to someone for whom English is a secondary language.
- thomasmallen 18y agoI think that the "ess" should only be added when sexual distinction is being communicated as well. Off the top of my head, I can only think of it coming up for very feminine nouns, such as "temptress" and "mistress." "Waitress" is still doable but discouraged.
- astrec 18y agoYou're American then? Waitress is still very much the term in this part of the world.
- thomasmallen 18y agoYep. See, we were overrun by the PC nuts in the 80s, but there are good parts. In the case of "waitress," I agree with them that the elaboration is unnecessary and pointless. So I value some PC when it delivers precision (but the arguments that certain speech is sexist seems far-fetched; "waitress" is not sexist).
- astrec 18y agoA problem for the PC nuts, in particular those that maintain words like "waitress" are sexist, is that they're very often hastening the descent to a masculine-neutral, and so are ultimately complicit in preserving the very system they oppose.
- sgk284 18y agoI'm american and this is the first I've heard of "waitress" being frowned upon here. My experience draws from Philadelphia, New York, and Silicon Valley (San Fran, Mountain View, and San Jose), but there are so many cultures in America I wouldn't be surprised if some places were moving away from the word.
- jlm382 18y agoIf I was primarily motivated by money, I would have tacked on a business model to internshipin for the mere sake of raking in immediate cash. Entrepreneurs who think like that often fail, because money distracts them from creating true value for users.
- eru 18y agoCould you please point out the link between intershipin and raking in cash? Thank you.
- siong1987 18y agoAt least, she is working on something promising right now. Her website got techcrunched last few months. http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/04/teen-bloggerpreneur-jessica-mahs-500-startup-internshipin/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/04/teen-bloggerpreneur-jes...
- jwesley 18y agoShe got Techcrunched because she is a 17 year old girl. Her promising website currently displays a blank page: http://internshipin.com/search.php http://internshipin.com/search.php It's a nice story for bloggers and journalists, but I don't think she's someone I need business advice from.
- rms 18y agoShe got a TED invite... that counts for a lot in this crowd.