The problem with the Condensed Moldbuggery post is that it just states the outrageous opinions and omits the interesting-but-possibly-insufficient arguments for them which can cause the reader to mis-infer what the arguments must have been.
My original guess was that it isn’t worth Eliezer’s time to read Moldbug, but that’s because it isn’t worth Eliezer’s time to form a good picture of politics, not because Moldbug doesn’t help you form a good picture of politics. So I was surprised he had a formed opinion, the same argument applies to him not yet responding to say Michael’s comment asking for specifics. I’m still hoping for it though.
From your previous comments I’m guessing you think a good picture of politics might be valuable. I’m interested in a good picture of politics as well. I just wanted to point out that I’m open to private correspondence if perhaps the bad signalling of such discussion is a concern, I don’t mean to rush or coax out of you a response to my other up voted comment asking you for specifics.
I think it’s very, very difficult to get a good picture of politics, both due to human psychology and the intrinsic complexity and non-repeatability of the domain. It’s almost certainly not worth my time to get a good picture of politics, because that would require my entire life. But if I wanted a good picture of politics, Mencius is very far down on the list of places I would look, given all the red flags his writing raises for me. If I wanted a good picture of politics I would start by hitting up Carl Shulman, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, and lots of other sources. I would probably never even make it down to Mencius Moldbug.
very far down on the list of places I would look, given all the red flags his writing raises for me
Although as Steven Kaas suggested in 2007, some thinkers might be crazy and inaccurate overall (and thus rightfully raise lots of red flags), and yet also have a few genuine insights not easily found elsewhere: if the most all-around-reliable thinkers also make some systematic mistakes (perhaps ideologically- or culturally-motivated), then we would expect some fringe thinkers to have some good ideas simply because they’re exploring regions of ideaspace that the more reliable thinkers are neglecting. (I’m not necessarily claiming this applies to Moldbug in particular; this comment is only to point out a consideration to be taken into account when constructing a list of who to read.)
That’s a good point, though there are still lots of “fringe” thinkers (not including fringe thinkers already in contact with my community, like Robin Hanson and Patri Friedman) that I would turn to before Moldbug, e.g. Michael Albert, David Benatar, and Noam Chomsky.
The problem with the Condensed Moldbuggery post is that it just states the outrageous opinions and omits the interesting-but-possibly-insufficient arguments for them which can cause the reader to mis-infer what the arguments must have been.
My original guess was that it isn’t worth Eliezer’s time to read Moldbug, but that’s because it isn’t worth Eliezer’s time to form a good picture of politics, not because Moldbug doesn’t help you form a good picture of politics. So I was surprised he had a formed opinion, the same argument applies to him not yet responding to say Michael’s comment asking for specifics. I’m still hoping for it though.
From your previous comments I’m guessing you think a good picture of politics might be valuable. I’m interested in a good picture of politics as well. I just wanted to point out that I’m open to private correspondence if perhaps the bad signalling of such discussion is a concern, I don’t mean to rush or coax out of you a response to my other up voted comment asking you for specifics.
I think it’s very, very difficult to get a good picture of politics, both due to human psychology and the intrinsic complexity and non-repeatability of the domain. It’s almost certainly not worth my time to get a good picture of politics, because that would require my entire life. But if I wanted a good picture of politics, Mencius is very far down on the list of places I would look, given all the red flags his writing raises for me. If I wanted a good picture of politics I would start by hitting up Carl Shulman, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, and lots of other sources. I would probably never even make it down to Mencius Moldbug.
Although as Steven Kaas suggested in 2007, some thinkers might be crazy and inaccurate overall (and thus rightfully raise lots of red flags), and yet also have a few genuine insights not easily found elsewhere: if the most all-around-reliable thinkers also make some systematic mistakes (perhaps ideologically- or culturally-motivated), then we would expect some fringe thinkers to have some good ideas simply because they’re exploring regions of ideaspace that the more reliable thinkers are neglecting. (I’m not necessarily claiming this applies to Moldbug in particular; this comment is only to point out a consideration to be taken into account when constructing a list of who to read.)
That’s a good point, though there are still lots of “fringe” thinkers (not including fringe thinkers already in contact with my community, like Robin Hanson and Patri Friedman) that I would turn to before Moldbug, e.g. Michael Albert, David Benatar, and Noam Chomsky.