One of the biggest areas of criticism I receive is over my grammar and spelling. This came up once again on this weeks show following some comments by Dan Oliver the editor of .net magazine.

I get on with Dan very well and consider him a friend. However his light hearted teasing is unfortunately not the norm. Many judge me because of my shortcomings in this area. It is something I am very sensitive about and yet not something I can change.

I am always amused by how some view it. They consider my lazy or stupid. They use grammar as a weapon to dismiss my opinions and ideas.

In reality I read everything I wrote several times. I check it carefully. However I cannot see what others do. It is something I am simply no good at. Does that make me stupid? Does it mean I should not write? That I should not express my opinions?

Personally I believe what I say is more important than the way I say it. However I accept not everybody agrees. That is there right.

I am aware that some may choose to dismiss me because of my writing. I am also aware that sometimes it might even loose me business. But do you know what? I don’t care.

In fact I would go as far as saying I am pleased I am the way I am. If it alienates some people then that is probably good. These are not people I want to reach and certainly not people I want to work with.

I am not suggesting they are bad people. I am just suggesting that they are very different from me. They see the world in a different way and as a result we probably should not work together.

I will never be able to please people who care about spelling and grammar. It is just beyond my ability. They are better finding somebody would thinks as they think.

It is strange though. I can’t claim I “get” those obsessed with such things to the point where they would choose not to work with somebody like myself.

I am obsessed with design. I judge value based on design. However I do not expect everybody to be a good designer. I know for example that a developer can be great at his job and yet have a shockingly designed site.

Would I not hire him on that basis? Of course not. I wouldn’t hire him as a designer but I am not asking people to hire me as a writer. So then why does it matter so much that I cannot spell?

P.S. I haven’t even bothered reading through this post which no doubt will really piss off some people. I wonder therefore wether that undermines my argument in their eyes. Probably but then, I don’t want them to hire me anyway :)