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I followed his blog back when he started this descent, and I have a theory that it was hill climbing. He used to blog about pretty innocent stuff; his wife mak
by jakevoytko 9mo ago
I followed his blog back when he started this descent, and I have a theory that it was hill climbing.
He used to blog about pretty innocent stuff; his wife making fun of him for wearing pajama pants in public, behind the scenes on drawing comics, funny business interactions he'd had. But then he started getting taken out of context by various online-only publications, and he'd get a burst of traffic and a bunch of hate mail and then it'd go away. And then he'd get quoted out of context again. I'm not sure if it bothered him, but he started adding preambles to his post, like "hey suchandsuch publication, if you want to take this post out of context, jump to this part right here and skip the rest."
I stopped reading around this point. But later when he came out with his "trump is a persuasion god, just like me, and he is playing 4d chess and will be elected president" schtick, it seemed like the natural conclusion of hill climbing controversy. He couldn't be held accountable for the prediction. After all, he's just a comedian with a background in finance, not a politics guy. But it was a hot take on a hot topic that was trying to press buttons.
I'm sure he figured out before most people that being a newspaper cartoonist was a downward-trending gig, and that he'd never fully transition to online. But I'm sad that this was how he decided to make the jump to his next act.
- afandian 9mo agoCan you define “hill climbing”? Is it a metaphor?
- jakevoytko 9mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_climbing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_climbing <-- applying this for getting more and more engagement
- johnnyanmac 9mo agoAhh, so that's what I've internally called "The Sharpiro Effect" really is. Though it's still a bigger shame that a philosophy professor would need to resort to this compared to a newpaper cartoonist.
- mpweiher 9mo ago> ...will be elected president But Trump was elected president. Twice. So maybe Adams was right? Or what did you mean with "hill climbing controversy"?
- jakevoytko 9mo agoI should have clarified for people who had the good fortune to not be exposed to these posts, but that was usually his lead-in to his ultra toxic writing. i.e. it was an engaging hook that led to more engaging trolling
- mpweiher 9mo agoHmm...but people claimed Adams was crazy for saying these things about Trump...and yet Adams was right. (The same) people also call him crazy (or "toxic") for those other writings. Maybe those other writings were right as well? Seems at least plausible. And yeah, I also thought it was completely impossible for Trump to get elected even once. Never mind twice. I was wrong.
- waisbrot 9mo agohttps://gizmodo.com/dilbert-creator-claims-he-taught-chatgpt-dangerous-hypnosis-techniques-2000473575 https://gizmodo.com/dilbert-creator-claims-he-taught-chatgpt... Scott Adams taught ChatGPT to put humans into an instant bliss-state. "Seems at least plausible"?
- PlanksVariable 9mo agoThat doesn’t follow.