From 5e97978ac02199fbd5df577501e967950df53312 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake" Date: Mon, 27 May 2019 23:29:04 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] "The Source of Our Power" --- content/2019/the-source-of-our-power.md | 10 ++++++++++ 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/2019/the-source-of-our-power.md diff --git a/content/2019/the-source-of-our-power.md b/content/2019/the-source-of-our-power.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..521e351 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/2019/the-source-of-our-power.md @@ -0,0 +1,10 @@ +Title: The Source of Our Power +Date: 2019-07-02 05:00 +Tags: discourse +Category: other + +"I really don't think you're rationally considering how to maximize your contribution to rationality pedagogy and deciding it runs through freaking out about transgender and maybe abandoning the movement in disgust." + +"_Almost no one's_ optimal contribution to rationality pedagogy runs through freaking out about transgender; I just think it's plausible that _mine_ does. It is written that [power comes from having Something to Protect](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/SGR4GxFK7KmW7ckCB/something-to-protect): [the Sequences](https://www.readthesequences.com/) were distilled out of Eliezer Yudkowsky's attempt to think carefully about how to build a superintelligence; the classic _Slate Star Codex_ posts on [argumentative charity](https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/02/12/youre-probably-wondering-why-ive-called-you-here-today/) were born out of Scott Alexander's [trauma after accidentally running afoul](https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/01/12/a-response-to-apophemi-on-triggers/) of social-justice activists. + +"If Eliezer had _started out_ trying to write about human rationality, if Scott had _started out_ trying to write about discourse norms, _it wouldn't have worked_. The Art must have a purpose other than itself, or it collapses into infinite recursion." -- 2.17.1