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Robin Hanson is the king of “pretty weird takes,” that is kind of the point of this blog

• jefftk 4y ago
  I interpreted mdorazio as politely saying "clearly wrong", which is not what Hanson is trying to do.
  • _yb2s 4y ago
    I think that's nearly the same thing, and in part related to what Robin is talking about in the article- people think they already have the answers, and talking about a weird idea is socially unacceptable, and automatically rejected as nonsense. This dynamic serves to lower the social status of the person proposing the weird idea, motivating them to keep quiet next time. I am not familiar with all of Robin Hanson's work, but I have seen two other such cases that really stand out in my memory: -He advocated for intentional covid-19 exposure as "variolation" before a vaccine was developed, suggesting this would save lives -His book "The Elephant in the Brain" explains why virtually all of the supposed motives of people in public culture are dishonest, and the real motives are hidden, even from ourselves - and are mostly all about maneuvering for social status A quote from Tyler Cowen on his wikipedia page: Robin has strange ideas ... My other friend and colleague Bryan Caplan put it best: "When the typical economist tells me about his latest research, my standard reaction is 'Eh, maybe.' Then I forget about it. When Robin Hanson tells me about his latest research, my standard reaction is 'No way! Impossible!' Then I think about it for years."