Comment by kragen
7 days ago
That doesn't make sense. It's like saying that the best general advice about which way to turn when you're driving is to turn right. From your comment at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44493308, and from the fact that you used the passive voice in your comment ("they should be avoided") apparently without noticing, it appears that the reason you have this opinion is that you don't know what the passive voice is in the first place.
I can’t find it, but I remember reading an article a year or two ago with an analysis showing some of the most vocal critics of the passive voice used the passive voice more often than most of their contemporary writers.
Probably http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003366.h..., giving specific statistics on Orwell and on Strunk & White, linked from https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2922.
Thank you!
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I'm extremely critical of how people use hyphens. Partly because I'm a heavy hyphen-user myself!
> the best general advice about which way to turn
At the risk of derailing into insane pedantry land, this part is kinda true, so maybe not the best analogy?
From routing efficiency: https://www.ge.com/news/reports/ups-drivers-dont-turn-left-p...
And also safety: https://www.phly.com/rms/blog/turning-left-at-an-intersectio...
I cherish your pedantry. If not here, where?
If you always turn right at every intersection, you will just go around and around the same block. Which way you should turn depends on where you want to go.
Right (ha), but that's kinda how one can approach passive voice too?
If you never use passive voice, you will be unable to emphasize the object of the sentence in cases where it might actually be necessary, and end up requiring more words to get the same effect.
If you never make left turns, you end up having to go past one block and make three right turns.
So even though best practices might be to avoid passive language for various reasons, sometimes it is cleaner. And even though best practices are to avoid left turns (for efficiency, safety, etc), sometimes it's worth it to just take the left turn. So even UPS trucks will make left turns, just not nearly as often.
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You didn’t originally say anything about always turning right at every intersection and neither did the GP. I had the same two thoughts as GP when I read your analogy.
No. That is what roundabouts, curved roads etc are for. Left turns are generally more problematic due to crossing incoming traffic etc.. Hence planning avoids them for good reason and there are much more right turns.