Totally by chance I decided to read this post, first thing in the morning (in other words, also first thing in 2025).
I must say that despite the rather negative or snarky comments here I have found more depth in this text than what I expected to find. Went to read a couple of other texts from this young engineer, and it filled me with some optimism for the year to come.
ivee 17 days ago [-]
honored to be your first read of 2025!
impure 17 days ago [-]
I don't agree. You know recently I read this post critiquing my article saying how I have so many followers and it's probably because of my clickbait titles. No, that's just who I am. I don't think popularity changes writers that much. Humans tend to write about the same things over and over. So when you initially follow someone it feels new but after a while it gets predictable. Plus there's probably a bit of nostalgia in there too.
ivee 17 days ago [-]
yeah I'm worried it could be me getting bored instead of the writers getting boring, but nobody could look at the writing in The Black Swan vs Skin in the Game and not be able to tell the huge difference in fluency, coherence, and beauty.
poincaredisk 17 days ago [-]
I like this article. I got several interesting ideas to think about now, for example
>In order to do good work, scientists must retain a separate status hierarchy where prestige flows to the most innovative ideas, not the most popular ones. In order to defend this separate status hierarchy
I also liked contrasting 4chan with 1-to-1 correspondence
adamtaylor_13 18 days ago [-]
Ironic how most of the comments here just cement the author’s position. Hollow feedback about his views on hollow feedback.
ivee 17 days ago [-]
here's some feedback on your feedback on the feedback about feedback: I like it
dcre 18 days ago [-]
Boy does this author know how to segment me out of his readership.
andrewflnr 18 days ago [-]
> writers who for a time seemed to be The Writer In the World Most In Touch With The Truth - Noam Chomsky, Sam Harris, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Curtis Yarvin, and Jordan Peterson.
Curtis Yarvin? Excuse me?
thenipper 18 days ago [-]
Jordan Peterson too. Putting Chomsky in the same sentence as those two is just insulting
andrewflnr 18 days ago [-]
I've heard similar things, but I'm not familiar enough with Peterson to say for myself. I've read enough Yarvin.
why_is_it_good 17 days ago [-]
> Excuse me?
Really thoughtful comment, that shows us the core of your objection: nothing.
Curtis Yarvin, IIRC in that same avatar of Moldbug, has actively advocated for the morality of slavery. There is no point in reasoning with that, there is literally only war.
Which is kind of a shame, because the top-level article does have some interesting ideas. I hope the author is just young and undiscerning and doesn't actually support the kind of things Yarvin stands for. But also, being a monster doesn't stop anyone from having the occasional interesting idea, so who knows.
strogonoff 17 days ago [-]
While “write to the single smartest person you know who cares a lot about your topic of interest” is a good advice, if you publish what you write this approach requires a healthy-to-unhealthy degree of sociopathy that becomes less common or tenable with age, by my subjective estimation.
ivee 17 days ago [-]
wait why would this require sociopathy?
strogonoff 17 days ago [-]
If you publish something, you by definition intend people you do not know, the wider public, to read it (if you really wanted to share your thought with that one person, publishing is not required).
Choosing to do something that affects someone else while being unaffected by how they react is not normal and indicates sociopathy.
People paying attention to how they affect others, how others react, and changing as a result of their feedback is basically how society exists. Most people are wired for this. People who are not wired for this… There is nothing stopping them from hurting someone for personal benefit, for example.
datavirtue 18 days ago [-]
[flagged]
ivee 17 days ago [-]
interesting feedback, thanks - it was mostly a stream of consciousness written in a single three hour sitting with no editing. would appreciate more detail. I'm actually gratefully surprised you found my writing so skimmable, not something I optimize for
datavirtue 17 days ago [-]
Yeah, your ideas came across quickly but as you mentioned there was a "stream of consciousness" after and seemed to reduce in value the more it continued.
Like my English professor would always bark: "just say it." Which meant you should avoid all unnecessary words..almost to the point of leaving some things out.
I must say that despite the rather negative or snarky comments here I have found more depth in this text than what I expected to find. Went to read a couple of other texts from this young engineer, and it filled me with some optimism for the year to come.
>In order to do good work, scientists must retain a separate status hierarchy where prestige flows to the most innovative ideas, not the most popular ones. In order to defend this separate status hierarchy
I also liked contrasting 4chan with 1-to-1 correspondence
Curtis Yarvin? Excuse me?
Really thoughtful comment, that shows us the core of your objection: nothing.
https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2007/09/how-dawkins...
Which is kind of a shame, because the top-level article does have some interesting ideas. I hope the author is just young and undiscerning and doesn't actually support the kind of things Yarvin stands for. But also, being a monster doesn't stop anyone from having the occasional interesting idea, so who knows.
Choosing to do something that affects someone else while being unaffected by how they react is not normal and indicates sociopathy.
People paying attention to how they affect others, how others react, and changing as a result of their feedback is basically how society exists. Most people are wired for this. People who are not wired for this… There is nothing stopping them from hurting someone for personal benefit, for example.
Like my English professor would always bark: "just say it." Which meant you should avoid all unnecessary words..almost to the point of leaving some things out.