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Comment by ujjwalg | Hacker News Reader

So, are you going to stop talking to your colleagues, friends and family because you might offend them by saying something? Man, live your life, do what you want/like doing. If people get offended by something you said genuinely with no bad intentions, they should be the ones feeling bad. Rather the best part about blogging is that you can proof read it as many times as you want before posting, unlike talking.

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You can talk to friends and family without making it public. You can also live your life without twitter (though some might find that hard to believe)

The point I'm making is that there is a risk involved. You can't just say "if they get offended it's on them" because they might e-mail the VP of your company and the VP of your company might see firing you as less trouble than facing controversy.

And if there's one lesson I've learned in life its that no amount of proof reading will keep you from offending some people. So that point's moot.

You can talk to friends and family without making it public.

Increasingly, you can't. I understand your decision to avoid making your own comments public as a rule, but once you've said something to someone, it may go public through their use of twitter, facebook, et al. As more people start lifelogging and vlogging, it will become likely that you're effectively in public at any time, even in the "privacy" of a friend's home or your own.

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