[jesserosenthal]

Pleasingly ambiguous phrasing. The first two times I read it, I got that this was the smartest anyone had ever looked (no one has ever looked smarter). Apologies for going off-topic, but I hadn't come across this particular cramp in the language before.

[notaddicted]

I doubt anyone would disagree that triple negatives aren't easy to parse.

[troels]

It's not the triple negative that is the culprit here though. It's the inherent ambiguity in a phrase such as "never been better", which could be either a negative or positive statement. I'm sure there's a name for that construct?

[Dylan16807]

I think tptacek's sentence would need a 'than' to have a valid reading as a positive statement. 'never been better' is ambiguous by itself, but by the time you put it into a sentence it may or may not be ambiguous.

So my answer is mu.

[im3w1l]

If that sentence hadn't mentioned triple negatives, I don't think I would have noticed anything abnormal about it.

[girvo]

Now I'm curious how natural language parsers handle triple negatives.

[JacobAldridge]

You'll be pleased to know that they don't not do them unwell.

[Lerc]

I'm not sure if I wouldn't be dissapointed to hear that they couldn't.