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A fake Facebook event disguised as a math problem has been one of its top posts for 6 months (www.engadget.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 93 points 1 year ago (11 children)

This kind of problem falls under "communicating badly and acting smug when misunderstood". Use parenthesis and the problem goes away.

https://xkcd.com/169/

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (9 children)

    on that note, can we please have parentheses in language. i keep making ambiguous sentences

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    People try and use commas for this sort of clarification and are eviscerate for it.

    With these sort of math problems, the rules are taught early and then all subsequent math is written in an unambiguous form.

    Language has the oddity of going the other way around where the rules get more complex as a display for advanced skills.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago*

    This kind of problem falls under “communicating badly and acting smug when misunderstood”.

    No it doesn't. It falls under adults forgetting the rules of Maths.

    Use parenthesis and the problem goes away

    There is no problem, other than adults who have forgotten the rules.

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