"Beware of Cranks" shows a terrible understanding of how major progress in science and technology happens. If you go around flipping the "crank bit", sure, you

"Beware of Cranks" shows a terrible understanding of how major progress in science and technology happens. If you go around flipping the "crank bit", sure, you will save yourself spending time evaluating lots of correct negatives and have more time to make on incremental progress, but you will also have a couple of false negatives, one or two of which will go on to change the world. World change is dominated by black swans. Conversely, Thiel's Hereticon conference idea is brilliant and shows a terrific understanding of how progress in science happens.