4 ms·

Likely, he started out blogging when he was comparatively unknown. His audience grew, but he could not flip a switch a fix his prior lack of opsec without nukin

• tptacek 6y ago
  He is definitely maximizing whatever damage could accrue to him through his outing, because he is fully into Streisand territory here. Just about the worst conceivable thing you could say, if in fear of being outed to nerds, is "I haven’t always done great" at hiding my identity. I'm skeptical that there's really much damage to be done to him through disclosure at this point.
  • strstr 6y ago
    Cynically, I think he is just trying to save his job. If he is a nationally known blogger, he risks losing it (for reasons stated elsewhere). If he can go to his employer and say “look I deleted the blog, there is nothing else I can do”, they might be sympathetic, even if the outcome is potentially short term negative for his psychiatry patients.
    • mirimir 6y ago
      > If he is a nationally known blogger, he risks losing [his job] (for reasons stated elsewhere). Why? Because he posted controversially? If he's an academic, perhaps he has tenure. But even if he doesn't, and he's as good as people are claiming, he ought to do well in private practice. And I can't imagine that a psychiatrist would lose their license over blog posts (but perhaps my imagination is outdated). He might lose patients who don't like his views, but then maybe he'd find such patients tiresome. I haven't read the blog, but I've seen nothing that suggests that he posted PII about any of his patients. If he did, then I retract what I said above.
  • norswap 6y ago
    Maybe. Bit of a crapshoot between both approaches - I don't think Scott think it would blow up quite like this? Scott is not afraid of being outed to nerds at all, but to the PC mob (sure, there's an intersection... let's replace git/master anyone?). It wouldn't especially be negative right now, but it means that his blog would be forever linked to his name. And one day is blog would attract unwanted attention (as it has in the past), and his name would be linked to it. Also, even if wasn't for this, I think he's right to make a stand for himself. He had very little leverage here, and "deleting" the blog (it's still archived) was a bad move that makes the NYT looks bad if they go and out him.
    • mirimir 6y ago
      > ... "deleting" the blog (it's still archived) was a bad move that makes the NYT looks bad if they go and out him. Did you mean "bold move"?
      • norswap 6y ago
        Indeed, good catch!
        • mirimir 6y ago
          Yeah, I make precisely that mistake a lot.
  • deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
• mirimir 6y ago
  I've done that a few times. And yes, it nuked my reputation, not that I've ever had a lot.