While I share your sentiment, I've always struggled with proper spelling even though I'd be considered by many (maybe not by HN standards, but certainly by average joe standards) to have above average written communication.
Spelling is important for a few reasons:
1. It creates a good first impression, if that impression is delivered in written form. (How many times have you degraded your opinion of someone because of a misused "your"?)
2. It broadens your ability to communicate because you can now focus on the message rather than remembering how to spell a word, or limiting yourself to words you can spell.
3. Perhaps most importantly, the rote memorization of unruly spellings is a great precursor to the rote memorization that is required to be competent in math. You can phonetically/use rules to determine how to spell "computer", but you need to memorize "receive", "sufficient" and "seize".
Again, not suggesting that this requires spelling competitions per se, but that spelling should not be discounted.
Spelling is important for a few reasons:
1. It creates a good first impression, if that impression is delivered in written form. (How many times have you degraded your opinion of someone because of a misused "your"?)
2. It broadens your ability to communicate because you can now focus on the message rather than remembering how to spell a word, or limiting yourself to words you can spell.
3. Perhaps most importantly, the rote memorization of unruly spellings is a great precursor to the rote memorization that is required to be competent in math. You can phonetically/use rules to determine how to spell "computer", but you need to memorize "receive", "sufficient" and "seize".
Again, not suggesting that this requires spelling competitions per se, but that spelling should not be discounted.