4 ms·

I've been frustrated by his writing in the past few years. He asks big questions, but is surprisingly small-minded with the answers. Feels like he found a form

by sdwr 2y ago

I've been frustrated by his writing in the past few years. He asks big questions, but is surprisingly small-minded with the answers. Feels like he found a formula for churning out thinkpieces: - find an interesting topic - make a simplified model of the issue - solve the simplified model - discover reality conflicts with the model (optional) - ignore reality - declare victory

thefaux 2y ago
There is a certain style of libertarian writing, and I include the author as well as the mercatus center posse as often using this syle, that I find quite off putting. It often feels like the primary purpose of most of their writing is to show how they are smarter than everyone else. This manifests in a writing style that is extremely confident and declarative which is an effective mask for the hollowness and one sidedness of their ideas. I'll cherry pick just one example from this article. The author in one sentence dismisses the entire field of psychoanalysis. Yet I can't help but notice that his entire blog sure looks like he is unconsciously carrying out his own psychoanalysis in public. You can also see it in the grievances against the medical profession where he has to use his blog to guard against feelings of inadequacy because he didn't get into a top medical school or residency. But he gets to play it both ways because the fact that he writes these outrageously long, fluff filled pieces, that draw a large following he can then use as proof that he is actually in fact smarter than the people who previously rejected him. I have some similar chips on my shoulder so I quickly recognize these patterns of behaviors in others. And perhaps I am misinterpreting him, but every single time I read one of his posts I am left with the main takeaway being that I am supposed to be impressed by his intelligence. Other red flags in this piece include the references to the stupidity of the average person (again in implicit contrast to his penetrating intellect) as well as the lazy generalizations and vacuous statements about amorphous concepts such as wokeness along with the bizarre suggestion that wokeness somehow conquered most priesthoods even though the counterexamples are far, far too long to list. I'll leave it with one though: actual priests in the US can hardly be said to be woke even though their own sacred texts are far more aligned with progressive economics than consumer capitalism.
- giraffe_lady 2y ago
  You're not merely supposed to be impressed by his intelligence but in his virtue as a purely rational, unbiased mind absolutely free from any corrupting ideology. He's an insecure like you said and a coward. Too afraid to say what he actually believes (or maybe too spiritually weak to actually commit to any), he hides his goals and motivations behind this pseudo-academic prose style.
  - esperent 2y ago
    > He's an insecure like you said and a coward Aren't we all, to some degree?
    - giraffe_lady 2y ago
      Sure but it is the degree that's notable here.
  - Viliam1234 2y ago
    > Too afraid to say what he actually believes I think this would sound very unlikely to any regular reader of SSC/ACX. Many articles, including this one, are explanations of what he believes and why. (Is it possible that you just find his explanations difficult to believe?)
    - giraffe_lady 2y ago
      > (Is it possible that you just find his explanations difficult to believe?) Correct, I don't believe he's honest about his beliefs, their sources, and his motivation.
- gwern 2y ago
  > I'll cherry pick just one example from this article. The author in one sentence dismisses the entire field of psychoanalysis. Properly. The issues with psychoanalysis are extensive, well known, and he has discussed them in the past, like the dodo bird verdict. If you are somehow still a fan of psychoanalysis after everything, then you are not going to be convinced by two sentences of criticism, or even three, and there is no point in trying when that is not the primary topic; dismissing it in 1 sentence is correct. (And this is your slamdunk criticism you lead with?)
nonameiguess 2y ago
I think he just grew up, frankly. I've never had a blog, but I'm fairly similar intellectually and dispositionally to Scott and have followed him a long time and I've seen the same thing happen to me. When I was younger and in school, I'd go deep into rabbit holes and investigate them very thoroughly, mostly dispassionately, trying to have as little bias as possible, maybe come to conclusions, maybe not. But having a full-time job I'm reasonably senior in, a family, and needing to stick to some regular exercise routine to stay functional and healthy as middle age otherwise ravishes me, there is simply not the time or mental energy to do those things any more. My reponse has been different, though. I just don't care any more. I have had no personal interaction with any person or institution that seemed woke in nearly a decade and I have no opinion about it, probably because I'm not in school and stay off the Internet except for Hacker News every few days. I haven't voted in two decades and avoid culture war nonsense. But Scott is a terminally online person, has built a brand, and is being paid lots of money by Substack to keep churning out these think pieces. So he has to keep doing it, but he's also a middle-aged man running a private psychiatry practice with a wife and two young kids. There is no way he has the time or mental energy to devote to this stuff that he had 15 years ago. He has accumulated knowledge and wisdom and is still a hell of a writer with a very good understanding of how to present statistics to a lay audience, but he's probably also forever going to be mentally stuck in 2007 when Ron Paul seemed to every professional-managerial class 25 year-old man in America to be the most intellectual honest, exciting thing we'd ever get. He's becoming the poor man's version of Andrew Sullivan or Megan McArdle for the kind of people who only listen to bands that aren't popular.
- sdwr 2y ago
  Suffering from success, DJ Khaled-style! Better to die a hero...
lproven 2y ago
I suggest you could simplify that to: - find an interesting topic - ignore reality - declare victory Or possibly to: - ignore reality - declare victory

by sdwr 2y ago

thefaux 2y ago

There is a certain style of libertarian writing, and I include the author as well as the mercatus center posse as often using this syle, that I find quite off putting. It often feels like the primary purpose of most of their writing is to show how they are smarter than everyone else. This manifests in a writing style that is extremely confident and declarative which is an effective mask for the hollowness and one sidedness of their ideas. I'll cherry pick just one example from this article. The author in one sentence dismisses the entire field of psychoanalysis. Yet I can't help but notice that his entire blog sure looks like he is unconsciously carrying out his own psychoanalysis in public. You can also see it in the grievances against the medical profession where he has to use his blog to guard against feelings of inadequacy because he didn't get into a top medical school or residency. But he gets to play it both ways because the fact that he writes these outrageously long, fluff filled pieces, that draw a large following he can then use as proof that he is actually in fact smarter than the people who previously rejected him. I have some similar chips on my shoulder so I quickly recognize these patterns of behaviors in others. And perhaps I am misinterpreting him, but every single time I read one of his posts I am left with the main takeaway being that I am supposed to be impressed by his intelligence. Other red flags in this piece include the references to the stupidity of the average person (again in implicit contrast to his penetrating intellect) as well as the lazy generalizations and vacuous statements about amorphous concepts such as wokeness along with the bizarre suggestion that wokeness somehow conquered most priesthoods even though the counterexamples are far, far too long to list. I'll leave it with one though: actual priests in the US can hardly be said to be woke even though their own sacred texts are far more aligned with progressive economics than consumer capitalism.

giraffe_lady 2y ago
You're not merely supposed to be impressed by his intelligence but in his virtue as a purely rational, unbiased mind absolutely free from any corrupting ideology. He's an insecure like you said and a coward. Too afraid to say what he actually believes (or maybe too spiritually weak to actually commit to any), he hides his goals and motivations behind this pseudo-academic prose style.
- esperent 2y ago
  > He's an insecure like you said and a coward Aren't we all, to some degree?
  - giraffe_lady 2y ago
    Sure but it is the degree that's notable here.
- Viliam1234 2y ago
  > Too afraid to say what he actually believes I think this would sound very unlikely to any regular reader of SSC/ACX. Many articles, including this one, are explanations of what he believes and why. (Is it possible that you just find his explanations difficult to believe?)
  - giraffe_lady 2y ago
    > (Is it possible that you just find his explanations difficult to believe?) Correct, I don't believe he's honest about his beliefs, their sources, and his motivation.
gwern 2y ago
> I'll cherry pick just one example from this article. The author in one sentence dismisses the entire field of psychoanalysis. Properly. The issues with psychoanalysis are extensive, well known, and he has discussed them in the past, like the dodo bird verdict. If you are somehow still a fan of psychoanalysis after everything, then you are not going to be convinced by two sentences of criticism, or even three, and there is no point in trying when that is not the primary topic; dismissing it in 1 sentence is correct. (And this is your slamdunk criticism you lead with?)

nonameiguess 2y ago

I think he just grew up, frankly. I've never had a blog, but I'm fairly similar intellectually and dispositionally to Scott and have followed him a long time and I've seen the same thing happen to me. When I was younger and in school, I'd go deep into rabbit holes and investigate them very thoroughly, mostly dispassionately, trying to have as little bias as possible, maybe come to conclusions, maybe not. But having a full-time job I'm reasonably senior in, a family, and needing to stick to some regular exercise routine to stay functional and healthy as middle age otherwise ravishes me, there is simply not the time or mental energy to do those things any more. My reponse has been different, though. I just don't care any more. I have had no personal interaction with any person or institution that seemed woke in nearly a decade and I have no opinion about it, probably because I'm not in school and stay off the Internet except for Hacker News every few days. I haven't voted in two decades and avoid culture war nonsense. But Scott is a terminally online person, has built a brand, and is being paid lots of money by Substack to keep churning out these think pieces. So he has to keep doing it, but he's also a middle-aged man running a private psychiatry practice with a wife and two young kids. There is no way he has the time or mental energy to devote to this stuff that he had 15 years ago. He has accumulated knowledge and wisdom and is still a hell of a writer with a very good understanding of how to present statistics to a lay audience, but he's probably also forever going to be mentally stuck in 2007 when Ron Paul seemed to every professional-managerial class 25 year-old man in America to be the most intellectual honest, exciting thing we'd ever get. He's becoming the poor man's version of Andrew Sullivan or Megan McArdle for the kind of people who only listen to bands that aren't popular.

sdwr 2y ago
Suffering from success, DJ Khaled-style! Better to die a hero...

lproven 2y ago

I suggest you could simplify that to: - find an interesting topic - ignore reality - declare victory Or possibly to: - ignore reality - declare victory