FWIW, I’ve never had a clear sense that Vassar’s ideas were especially good (but, also, not had a clear sense that they weren’t). More that, Vassar generally operates in a mode that is heavily-brainstorm-style-thinking and involves seeing the world in a particular way. And this has high-variance-but-often-useful side effects.
Exposure to that way of thinking has a decent chance of causing people to become more agenty, or dislodged from a subpar local optimum, or gain some subtle skills about seeing the world with fresh eyes. The point is less IMO about the ideas and more about having that effect on people.
(With the further caveat that this is all a high variance strategy, and the tail risks do not fail gracefully, sometimes causing damage, in ways that Anna hints at and which I agree would be a much larger discussion)
FWIW, I’ve never had a clear sense that Vassar’s ideas were especially good (but, also, not had a clear sense that they weren’t). More that, Vassar generally operates in a mode that is heavily-brainstorm-style-thinking and involves seeing the world in a particular way. And this has high-variance-but-often-useful side effects.
Exposure to that way of thinking has a decent chance of causing people to become more agenty, or dislodged from a subpar local optimum, or gain some subtle skills about seeing the world with fresh eyes. The point is less IMO about the ideas and more about having that effect on people.
(With the further caveat that this is all a high variance strategy, and the tail risks do not fail gracefully, sometimes causing damage, in ways that Anna hints at and which I agree would be a much larger discussion)