[bubaflub]

Good catch! I read that paragraph the same way and I believe it is a typo. I've left a comment on the medium article asking the author to clarify that section.

If you don't mind me asking, what is so off-putting about these types of mistakes? I'd like to do more personal and professional technical writing similar to this but I find it a bit daunting, especially when I consider that my audience could know much more about a subject than I do. Do you have any suggestions on how I could or should write articles that may contain errors so I don't upset readers?

[Manishearth]

I came across that mistake (and it was pretty obviously a mistake to me, but that's because I already know quite a bit about the RH), and later was stonewalled by a different mistake -- the "Plot of the real and imaginary part of the Riemann zeta function ζ(s) in the interval -5 < Re < 2, 0 < Im < 60" plot is mislabeled; it's actually a contour graph of the condition "ζ(s) = 0" on the complex plane with real and imaginary parts plotted separately.

The problem for me is that my way of reading math stuff is to assume that whatever is said is being true and fit it into a growing mental model as I read. Many other students I know do that. Once you get into the flow of it this can get pretty fast without losing out on comprehension. When you come across mistakes, it leads to a speed bump, and you have to stop and re-collect your thoughts after this. This only happens to me for math and physics, not other kinds of technical writing, but it happens.

This doesn't turn me off an article, it's just super annoying.

Typos and stuff are fine, it's the "plausibly true" stuff that gets you. I suggest spending more time proofreading but not worrying more about it.

[Dzugaru]

> what is so off-putting about these types of mistakes?

Basically when I see something like this I involuntary start thinking: "Is it really a typo? Or is it the writer doesn't understand what he is writing about, because he cannot explain it to me in a clear and precise way?". Maybe this "BS filter" I have is a bad thing for me :(

About writing articles - I think one shouldn't worry about audience knowing more about a subject - it's inevitable, and it's what discussions in comments are for. So, errors due to not knowing something are ok, I think. Other errors can easily be corrected by proof reading (by a friend or by oneself after a day). That what I would do if I actually decided to start a blog :)