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I am honestly concerned for Gwern's mental health. So much personal optimization taken to such an extreme, doing blatantly illegal things and blogging about it.

I am honestly concerned for Gwern's mental health. So much personal optimization taken to such an extreme, doing blatantly illegal things and blogging about it. Some are probably quite unhealthy. I am all for being the best person we all can be -- but Gwern seems to have made personal optimization the end goal itself. I think we should aim to be happy well adjusted people, not work ourselves to death, not drug ourselves to our physical limit. There were times in my life when I behaved similarly and it was rooted in deep dissatisfaction with life. To be clear, this is not an ad hominem attack. The article is amazing.

sitkack 8y ago
The ability to wield the power of the Internet to answer questions, not just optimizing a shopping cart, but the ability to answer deep questions is a needed and important skill. I have zero issue if someone wants to optimize themselves, even with no other end other than "optimal".
vonseel 8y ago
Gwern is amazing and what a fascinating website. I hear you and understand where you are coming from, but some people thrive under extreme organization like this. These are the kind of people I want writing technical documentation on my teams.
Recursing 8y ago
> doing blatantly illegal things and blogging about it What are the legal risks of using (downloading from and uploading to) libgen, or buying from ebook.farm?