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Comment by yid | Hacker News Reader

I think that's the point. Apologizing sincerely seems to be a forgotten art.

but he didn't. he said he answered the question wrong, not that the answer was wrong. You could argue about semantics, but it's clear at a very superficial level to everyone that he answered the question wrong - wrong forum, wrong wording - but that says nothing about how correct the answer is.

Like for a personal parallel, it would probably be wrong to announce to a friend that you thought they were ugly, no matter how correct you were.

The sincere apology would have been to announce that his answer was incorrect - otherwise he is just trying to pacify the mob, if that makes sense. Perhaps I'm being a little pedantic, but this email has clearly been proofread by a number of people, and the key statement is definitely not as clear-cut as this HN thread seems to be deciding (it's a very clear-cut non-statement).

Edit: Criticism definitely fair, I jumped to conclusions.

In the UK, people would typically say "I answered the question wrong" and consider it synonymous with "The answer I gave was wrong". Many Indians (that I know personally at least) seem to copy UK speech patterns more than US ones.

I think you are reading more into this than is really there.

Not to be annoying, but I wish you wouldn't say 'copy'. It makes it sound like an affectation. India only recently gained independence and Indian English is strongly influenced by the way it was spoken in the UK at the time.

I'm sure you didn't mean anything by your choice of words but perhaps using "influenced by" or "derives from" would be better.

I think you're being unfair. If he said only that, then maybe you could claim that he was hiding that he truly believes women shouldn't ask for raises. However, he clarified and said "Maria's advice was the right advice. If you think you deserve a raise, you should just ask."

The juxtaposition of this 'right advice' with the previous 'wrong answer' should indicate to you his current position on the matter. Speech is a lossy serialization of thought. It depends on our reconstructing context.

>And when it comes to career advice on getting a raise when you think it’s deserved, Maria’s advice was the right advice. If you think you deserve a raise, you should just ask.

Sounds like an unambiguous repudiation of his previous answer to me.

EDIT: Just noticed geetee made the same comment. Didn't mean to steal it.

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