Thanks for this! I hadn’t seen those quotes, or at least hadn’t remembered them.
I actually really appreciate Alex sticking his neck out a bit here and suggesting this LessWrong dialogue. We both have some contrary opinions, but his takes were probably a little more predictably unwelcome in this venue. (Maybe we should try this on a different crowd—we could try rendering this on Twitter too, lol.)
There’s definitely value to being (rudely?) shaken out of lazy habits of thinking—though I might not personally accuse someone of fanfiction research! As discussed in the dialogue, I’m still unsure the exact extent of correct- vs mis-interpretation and I think Alex has a knack for (at least sometimes correctly) calling out others’ confusion or equivocation.
but his takes were probably a little more predictably unwelcome in this venue
I hope he doesn’t feel his takes are unwelcome here. I think they’re empirically very welcome. His posts seem to have a roughly similar level of controversy and popularity as e.g. so8res. I’m pretty sad that he largely stopped engaging with lesswrong.
There’s definitely value to being (rudely?) shaken out of lazy habits of thinking [...] and I think Alex has a knack for (at least sometimes correctly) calling out others’ confusion or equivocation.
Yeah I agree, that’s why I like to read Alex’s takes.
Thanks for this! I hadn’t seen those quotes, or at least hadn’t remembered them.
I actually really appreciate Alex sticking his neck out a bit here and suggesting this LessWrong dialogue. We both have some contrary opinions, but his takes were probably a little more predictably unwelcome in this venue. (Maybe we should try this on a different crowd—we could try rendering this on Twitter too, lol.)
There’s definitely value to being (rudely?) shaken out of lazy habits of thinking—though I might not personally accuse someone of fanfiction research! As discussed in the dialogue, I’m still unsure the exact extent of correct- vs mis-interpretation and I think Alex has a knack for (at least sometimes correctly) calling out others’ confusion or equivocation.
I hope he doesn’t feel his takes are unwelcome here. I think they’re empirically very welcome. His posts seem to have a roughly similar level of controversy and popularity as e.g. so8res. I’m pretty sad that he largely stopped engaging with lesswrong.
Yeah I agree, that’s why I like to read Alex’s takes.