Second, $1000 isn't actually real money to a San Francisco software engineer.
-Third—yes. Yes, it _absolutely_ was a little cultish.
+Third—yes. Yes, it _absolutely_ was a little cultish. There's a sense in which, _sociologically and psychologically speaking_, Yudkowsky is a religious leader, and I was—am—a devout adherent of the religion he made up.
[TODO: explain religion]