alt Hacker NewsThis is actually useful. I didn’t know that generic “you” meant “one”. I always interpreted it as “you the reader” and felt desperate once a week when reading articles like these.
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It is an abstraction: "you" immediately, but not just you specifically, hence any abstract "objected" person (even the first person taken reflectively as a mental instance).
>This is actually useful. I didn’t know that generic “you” meant “one”. I always interpreted it as “you the reader” and felt desperate once a week when reading articles like these.
It does mean "you, the reader" or "you, any random reader from my intended audience" (e.g. fellow PhDs) in articles like these.
Using it to mean "one" is a different use, in more formal talk.
Interesting. Are you a native English speaker? You in the general case is used quite a lot and I wouldn't be able to handle every single article or reference using that to mean to refer to me specifically.
I love seeing helpful people create this moment :)
As a native English speaker, I interpret it as “you the reader”. Or maybe I should say, I don’t intuit any material difference between “you the reader” and “any given reader” or “one”. I think your original comment is a good critique of the headline.