One interpretation of LessWrong is that it is a defense against a parent’s relentless criticism and neediness by building an impenetrable edifice of logical truth.
Specifically, there is a strong bias toward either narcissistic or people-pleasing habits, and a difficulty with recognizing and following one’s own desires (because the Universe, unlike a parent, never tells people what to do).
Parents who acquiesce to their child’s resolution to withdraw from school do not sound domineering or unduly impressed by education.
Thanks for pointing out that inconsistency—instead of “relentless criticism and neediness”, I meant “relentless high standards, refusal to be impressed, and need for inappropriate emotional validation from their child”.
To clarify how Harry’s parents fit the narcissistic-parent pattern: they don’t take Harry seriously. If he does something impressive, or makes a good argument, they laugh at him and feel good about themselves. “Both of Harry’s parents howled with laughter at that, like they thought it was all a big joke” (Ch. 2) is their reply to Harry’s description of school as “child conscription”. They’re not directly critical of Harry, but they do laugh at and ignore him, which is similarly harmful.
They value education in that Petunia, presumably a stay-at-home mother, married an “eminent professor” and has her son educated by “tutors from the endless pool of starving students” and “encouraged to study whatever caught his attention” (Ch. 1). A description of what Petunia actually does all day is conspicuously absent. Taken together, this is evidence that she highly values education but is not highly educated herself.
Harry’s father is usually avoidant: he says only “Huh” when first confronted with magical levitation (Ch. 2) and tries to solve a disagreement with his wife by “reading a book of higher maths to show how smart he was” (Ch. 1). This attitude on top of his time-consuming professor duties indicates that Harry spends most of his time at home around only his mother.
Harry is frustrated with this treatment from his parents: “There! You see what I have to deal with?” (Ch. 2) he says to McGongall when his parents laugh at and ignore him, again.
I could see an older Harry putting together something like LessWrong to show his parents once and for all that he was smart and therefore worthy of respect as an equal, only to be met with disinterest from his father and more requests for love/validation from his mother. It’s difficult to judge how narcissistic the posters here are, due to the excellent moderation and high standard for reason-driven discussion. This analysis is in no way a criticism: I share the goals of solving life’s problems and mysteries using science, and I’m posting this out of a narcissistic wish to refine my own ideas.
If he does something impressive, or makes a good argument, they laugh at him and feel good about themselves. “Both of Harry’s parents howled with laughter at that, like they thought it was all a big joke” (Ch. 2) is their reply to Harry’s description of school as “child conscription”.
No, this is their reaction to Harry’s explanation of why he isn’t in school. He says that he’s a conscientous objector to child conscription. They find this very funny, because the reason they took him out of school is (possibly among other things) that he bit a math teacher. This is not Harry doing something impressive or making a good argument.
What follows feels almost like a fully-general criticism, so I don’t know how seriously you should take it:
This post, and the comment thread, feels to me very much like you’re arguing towards a bottom line, like you’ve decided what personality traits you’re going to find and now you’re looking for things that you can present as evidence towards them, if you squint and don’t read the text. Another example would be
Feels entitled—has unreasonable expectations of special treatment? Check. Harry requires subservience from the school administration, and special magic items such as the time-turner.
Harry’s reaction to getting the time turner is along the lines of “what the fuck are you thinking?” Later he grows attached to it, but the initial reaction doesn’t feel at all like it fits.
That makes sense—this and a few other replies are making me doubt my ability to accurately weigh the evidence. The pro-narcissism examples tend to be vivid and exciting and so are more memorable than anti-narcissism examples which tend to be ordinary and less interesting. One solution might be to re-read a large-enough sample of HPMOR and rate how indicative of narcissism is everything Harry says or does. This would be interesting but would take some time. I’ll be much less confident in my conclusions until I do this.
Parents who acquiesce to their child’s resolution to withdraw from school do not sound domineering or unduly impressed by education.
Thanks for pointing out that inconsistency—instead of “relentless criticism and neediness”, I meant “relentless high standards, refusal to be impressed, and need for inappropriate emotional validation from their child”.
To clarify how Harry’s parents fit the narcissistic-parent pattern: they don’t take Harry seriously. If he does something impressive, or makes a good argument, they laugh at him and feel good about themselves. “Both of Harry’s parents howled with laughter at that, like they thought it was all a big joke” (Ch. 2) is their reply to Harry’s description of school as “child conscription”. They’re not directly critical of Harry, but they do laugh at and ignore him, which is similarly harmful.
They value education in that Petunia, presumably a stay-at-home mother, married an “eminent professor” and has her son educated by “tutors from the endless pool of starving students” and “encouraged to study whatever caught his attention” (Ch. 1). A description of what Petunia actually does all day is conspicuously absent. Taken together, this is evidence that she highly values education but is not highly educated herself.
Harry’s father is usually avoidant: he says only “Huh” when first confronted with magical levitation (Ch. 2) and tries to solve a disagreement with his wife by “reading a book of higher maths to show how smart he was” (Ch. 1). This attitude on top of his time-consuming professor duties indicates that Harry spends most of his time at home around only his mother.
Harry is frustrated with this treatment from his parents: “There! You see what I have to deal with?” (Ch. 2) he says to McGongall when his parents laugh at and ignore him, again.
I could see an older Harry putting together something like LessWrong to show his parents once and for all that he was smart and therefore worthy of respect as an equal, only to be met with disinterest from his father and more requests for love/validation from his mother. It’s difficult to judge how narcissistic the posters here are, due to the excellent moderation and high standard for reason-driven discussion. This analysis is in no way a criticism: I share the goals of solving life’s problems and mysteries using science, and I’m posting this out of a narcissistic wish to refine my own ideas.
No, this is their reaction to Harry’s explanation of why he isn’t in school. He says that he’s a conscientous objector to child conscription. They find this very funny, because the reason they took him out of school is (possibly among other things) that he bit a math teacher. This is not Harry doing something impressive or making a good argument.
What follows feels almost like a fully-general criticism, so I don’t know how seriously you should take it:
This post, and the comment thread, feels to me very much like you’re arguing towards a bottom line, like you’ve decided what personality traits you’re going to find and now you’re looking for things that you can present as evidence towards them, if you squint and don’t read the text. Another example would be
Harry’s reaction to getting the time turner is along the lines of “what the fuck are you thinking?” Later he grows attached to it, but the initial reaction doesn’t feel at all like it fits.
That makes sense—this and a few other replies are making me doubt my ability to accurately weigh the evidence. The pro-narcissism examples tend to be vivid and exciting and so are more memorable than anti-narcissism examples which tend to be ordinary and less interesting. One solution might be to re-read a large-enough sample of HPMOR and rate how indicative of narcissism is everything Harry says or does. This would be interesting but would take some time. I’ll be much less confident in my conclusions until I do this.
Saying only ‘huh’ to that seems to me to be recognizing that you have nothing useful to say at this point.