On 27/03/2025 19:31, Keith Thompson wrote:
James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> writes:
On 3/26/25 05:59, Keith Thompson wrote:
David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> writes:
[...]
Sure. But most people have forgotten such details long ago -
negative numbers are not part of daily life (except as an
indicator of how much you owe the bank...). After all,
negative numbers are not natural!
Most people understand credits and debits.
From my experience, most do not. In particular, if you gave
them examples of a transaction and the relevant accounts, they
would have no idea which accounts should be debited, and which
should be credited.
Sure, most people don't understand double-entry bookkeepping. I
was thinking of simpler concepts. Depositing money increases
your bank account balance, withdrawing money decreases it,
withdrawing too much can result in a negative balance, and so on.
A checking account or credit card statement shows numbers with or
without a "-" symbol.
Most of us here are probably in the top 10% of the general
population in terms of mathematical knowledge, and it can be
difficult to know how much knowledge most people have. But I
think that most people have a decent basic understanding of
positive and negative numbers. As I mentioned recently,
temperatures might have been a better example.
And this is *way* off-topic.
That didn't stop you having your say first /then/ declaring it
as way off-topic!
bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
On 27/03/2025 19:31, Keith Thompson wrote:
And this is *way* off-topic.
That didn't stop you having your say first /then/ declaring it
as way off-topic!
I agree with the implied criticism here.
Fair comment. OTOH, a wise man once said that posting on-topic
articles is like paying pennies into your account, and posting
off-topic articles is like taking out dollars.
On 28/03/2025 18:03, Tim Rentsch wrote:
bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
On 27/03/2025 19:31, Keith Thompson wrote:
<OT stuff snipped>
And this is *way* off-topic.
That didn't stop you having your say first /then/ declaring it
as way off-topic!
I agree with the implied criticism here.
Fair comment. OTOH, a wise man once said that posting on-topic
articles is like paying pennies into your account, and posting
off-topic articles is like taking out dollars.
Over the years Keith has posted many thousands of on-topic articles.
That doesn't make OT stuff topical, but it does earn Keith a lot of
slack.
Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> writes:
On 28/03/2025 18:03, Tim Rentsch wrote:
bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
On 27/03/2025 19:31, Keith Thompson wrote:
<OT stuff snipped>
And this is *way* off-topic.
That didn't stop you having your say first /then/ declaring it
as way off-topic!
I agree with the implied criticism here.
Fair comment. OTOH, a wise man once said that posting on-topic
articles is like paying pennies into your account, and posting
off-topic articles is like taking out dollars.
Over the years Keith has posted many thousands of on-topic articles.
That doesn't make OT stuff topical, but it does earn Keith a lot of
slack.
I have the opposite reaction. Certainly Keith is well known and
generally highly regarded in the newsgroup. But it is precisely
because of that status that he should hold himself to a higher
standard than others (and the same is true for other similarly
situated newsgroup participants). Casual posters see what leaders
do and think because a leader does it the behavior is okay. The
best people should try to set a good example, not be granted an
exception for bad behavior.
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