What alerted me to this is an article[1] naming historical figures who were bad at spelling. The one that stood out for me was "The Queen of Crime" Agathe Christie: she's dyslexic. Dyslexia is interpreted as a big problem when you are a kid but depending on viewpoint it's also a great gift. Agatha even goes to say "My letters were without originality". Talk about a paradox.

(A tangential observation here is that the best programmer I ever worked with was a bad speller.)

Which begs the question: should we set as a goal to not try to be too good (for some definition of good)? Like most things there's probably a line to draw in the sand here. But I'm looking for some guiding principles underneath.

What do fellow HNers think?

[1] - http://theweek.com/article/index/246092/11-historical-figures-who-were-really-bad-at-spelling