Social Disease

I didn't see many movies in 2010, but I did see the newest offerings from my two favourite directors, David Fincher ("The Social Network")* and Darren Aronofsky ("Black Swan")**, and loved 'em both.

Two of the characters in "The Social Network" are a pair of twins, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who come across as entitled but otherwise principled and decent people who got screwed over by Mark Zuckerberg over the creation of Facebook. They sued him and won $65 million, which is an ungodly sum of money, far more than the huge majority of people on Earth could ever imagine seeing in their lifetimes. They are two good-looking and wealthy men who were given a flattering portrayal in one of the most popular movies of the year (and played by a man who's even better-looking than they are, which is even more flattering). But you know what? It isn't enough for them. No, Zuckerberg is influential and insanely wealthy, and now the Winklevosses have decided that they want more of his money and reflected glory.

Now, I want to show you something from the comment section of the Gawker story about their new lawsuit:

From guestofaguest.com's Publisher profile:

Cameron Winklevoss is an American Olympic Rower and Entreprenuer.

They forgot "He is also an entitled dumbass who clearly got into Harvard through family connections, not actual intellectual achievement, since he CAN'T EVEN SPELL "ENTREPRENEUR" CORRECTLY IN HIS OWN FUCKING PROFILE, ON THE SITE HE STARTED AND OWNS.

Don't tell me: that's Zuck's fault, too, right? What a fucking douchebag.

This is how important correct spelling is. A lot of people might not even notice, but some will, and those people will judge you, and whatever your merits, they will think ill of you because you didn't even take a few minutes to run a spellcheck and make sure that the text image you present to the world is coherent and correct. If you're decent, people's opinion of you will drop, just a little bit. If you're an entitled dumbass, they'll think of you as a fucking douchebag.

Don't be that douchebag. Whoever you are, whatever you're writing, always run a spellcheck. The more important your communication, the more important it is to make sure it's letter-perfect. If you're writing a blog post, double-check it for errors. If you're writing a résumé, spellcheck it and then have another person proof it--two people is better. If you're running for political office, have everything spellchecked repeatedly, have a fact-checker go through it, have a copy editor go through it again, and then run it under another set of eyes just in case. And pay these people well--they're your image.

* I knew I'd go, because it's Fincher and I've seen all his movies, though I thought it sounded like kind of a boring premise for a film, but this was a thrilling piece of machinery. Also, buy the soundtrack: it's amazing.

** I knew I'd go, because it's Aronofsky and I've seen all his movies, though I hated his previous flick, "The Wrestler", but this was a hot, sticky fever dream of a movie, throbbing with repressed sexuality and dark doppelgangers and Cronenbergian body horror.