4 ms·

its/it's for some reason seems the most annoying to me.

• selmnoo 13y ago
  A lot of Hacker News superstars make that mistake. Rayiner makes it the most often. Of course he probably knows the difference, he's a really smart guy, but it's odd that he gets it wrong so often. I used to look down upon people who would make these common mistakes... I don't anymore, after recently having been called out on making them myself. The human mind just makes these mistakes, I imagine because the sound link is very strong. The process of thinking of something and then writing it down is not instantaneous. When I've thought up a sentence, I will write it down without thinking much about it... it's then in that process of transcribing the thought to written text that the mistake is made. The only way to improve is to review your writings often, take note of what mistakes are most often occurring, and proactively watch for them in the future.
  • gknoy 13y ago
    Great point! Re-reading what we write is great advice. I have found several mistakes by reading my own pull requests before I submit them, even.
  • Terretta 13y ago
    These mistakes are viral. Expose yourself to a pattern often enough and you will reproduce it. I was immune until participating in online forums but by now have made virtually all of these mistakes. The way to improve is to expose yourself to more correct patterns; read more well edited material than forums.