I interacted with Leverage some over the years. I felt like they had useful theory and techniques, and was disappointed that it was difficult to get access to their knowledge. I enjoyed their parties. I did a Paradigm workshop. I knew people in Leverage to a casual degree.
What’s live for me now is that when the other recent post about Leverage was published, I was subjected to strong, repeated pressure by someone close to Geoff to have the post marked as flawed, and asked to lean on BayAreaHuman to approximately retract the post or acknowledge its flaws. (This request was made of me in my new capacity as head of LessWrong.) “I will make a fuss” is what I was told. I agreed that the post has flaws (I commented to that effect in the thread) and this made me feel the pressure wasn’t illegitimate despite being unpleasant. Now it seems to be part of a larger concerning pattern.
Further details seem pertinent, but I find myself reluctant to share them (and already apprehensive that this more muted description will have the feared effect) because I just don’t want to damage the relationship I have with the person who was pressuring me. I’m unhappy about it, but I still value that relationship. Heck, I haven’t named them. I should note that this person updated (or began reconsidering their position) after Zoe’s post and has since stopped applying any pressure on me/LessWrong.
With Geoff himself (with whom I personally have had a casual positive relationship) I feel more actual fear of being critical or in anyway taking the side against Leverage. I predict that if I do so, I’ll be placed on the list of adversaries. And something like, just based on the reaction to the Common knowledge post, Leverage is very agenty when it comes to their reputation. Or I don’t know, I don’t fear any particularly terrible retribution myself, but I loathe to make “enemies”.
I’d like to think that I’ve got lots of integrity and will say true things despite pressures and incentives otherwise, but I’m definitely not immune to them.
I interacted with Leverage some over the years. I felt like they had useful theory and techniques, and was disappointed that it was difficult to get access to their knowledge. I enjoyed their parties. I did a Paradigm workshop. I knew people in Leverage to a casual degree.
What’s live for me now is that when the other recent post about Leverage was published, I was subjected to strong, repeated pressure by someone close to Geoff to have the post marked as flawed, and asked to lean on BayAreaHuman to approximately retract the post or acknowledge its flaws. (This request was made of me in my new capacity as head of LessWrong.) “I will make a fuss” is what I was told. I agreed that the post has flaws (I commented to that effect in the thread) and this made me feel the pressure wasn’t illegitimate despite being unpleasant. Now it seems to be part of a larger concerning pattern.
Further details seem pertinent, but I find myself reluctant to share them (and already apprehensive that this more muted description will have the feared effect) because I just don’t want to damage the relationship I have with the person who was pressuring me. I’m unhappy about it, but I still value that relationship. Heck, I haven’t named them. I should note that this person updated (or began reconsidering their position) after Zoe’s post and has since stopped applying any pressure on me/LessWrong.
With Geoff himself (with whom I personally have had a casual positive relationship) I feel more actual fear of being critical or in anyway taking the side against Leverage. I predict that if I do so, I’ll be placed on the list of adversaries. And something like, just based on the reaction to the Common knowledge post, Leverage is very agenty when it comes to their reputation. Or I don’t know, I don’t fear any particularly terrible retribution myself, but I loathe to make “enemies”.
I’d like to think that I’ve got lots of integrity and will say true things despite pressures and incentives otherwise, but I’m definitely not immune to them.