There’s an important part missing in my current draft that has to do with the fact that much of the “esoteric” content is in fact not being openly pushed, but rather smuggled into the community via other methods; I think it’s very difficult to translate/synthesize/ground concepts if you aren’t being told about them until they’ve already taken over relevant parts of the community.
This is also why much of the post has a “sound the alarm” feeling. I think that if the community’s institutions were operating more properly, it would be much more resilient to things being “smuggled in”, which in turn would mean that people trying to spread these ideas would have to make a stronger/more reasoned case for them in order to get traction here.
As for the “list” format—this post is somewhat based on a talk I gave at the CFAR alumni reunion last year which was much better-received than I’d anticipated. Several people told me they had similar concerns but wasn’t sure if it was just them or what, and if we’re trying to “get the shields back online” just warning people that this is going on may be sufficient to prompt at least somewhat more careful thinking.
There’s an important part missing in my current draft that has to do with the fact that much of the “esoteric” content is in fact not being openly pushed, but rather smuggled into the community via other methods; I think it’s very difficult to translate/synthesize/ground concepts if you aren’t being told about them until they’ve already taken over relevant parts of the community.
This is also why much of the post has a “sound the alarm” feeling. I think that if the community’s institutions were operating more properly, it would be much more resilient to things being “smuggled in”, which in turn would mean that people trying to spread these ideas would have to make a stronger/more reasoned case for them in order to get traction here.
As for the “list” format—this post is somewhat based on a talk I gave at the CFAR alumni reunion last year which was much better-received than I’d anticipated. Several people told me they had similar concerns but wasn’t sure if it was just them or what, and if we’re trying to “get the shields back online” just warning people that this is going on may be sufficient to prompt at least somewhat more careful thinking.