I am happy that you've found success. May you be your best self in enjoying the good that you've earned.
I would not describe myself as a rationalist, but I recognize what you've discovered--there's value to be found here, and it's worth the time to seek out. I suspect that SBF found some valuable facts about the world, but not the much more valuable attending wisdom, and proceeded to apply his lessons much less well than you've done. Perhaps he'll learn something from the ruin his mistakes have caused, but even if so, it will have been purchased at great cost to many others.
I'm increasingly convinced that SBF was acting with some level of malice aforethought and he was using EA as a decent camouflage.
But whatever he did learn from the rationalists, he missed the lessons on how deontology is extremely useful for putting up behavioral guardrails so that your fallible human hardware doesn't end up causing you to commit moral atrocities.
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A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently,
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originally identified by
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but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens
this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for
the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired
propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."
On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.
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Notes -
I am happy that you've found success. May you be your best self in enjoying the good that you've earned.
I would not describe myself as a rationalist, but I recognize what you've discovered--there's value to be found here, and it's worth the time to seek out. I suspect that SBF found some valuable facts about the world, but not the much more valuable attending wisdom, and proceeded to apply his lessons much less well than you've done. Perhaps he'll learn something from the ruin his mistakes have caused, but even if so, it will have been purchased at great cost to many others.
I'm increasingly convinced that SBF was acting with some level of malice aforethought and he was using EA as a decent camouflage.
But whatever he did learn from the rationalists, he missed the lessons on how deontology is extremely useful for putting up behavioral guardrails so that your fallible human hardware doesn't end up causing you to commit moral atrocities.
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