site banner
PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1632 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for February 20, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

https://harpers.org/archive/2026/03/childs-play-sam-kriss-ai-startup-roy-lee/

Sam Kriss is a good writer. I didn't expect the article to pivot from a Chinese-American Psycho to a dinner with Scott Alexander, but it did.

UPD: just got to the Donald Boat part and I'm in tears. Now I'll have to explain to my wife why I was giggling idiotically and endure her condescending look.

This was funny, but:

The highly agentic are people who just do things.

(neat)

They don’t timidly wait for permission or consensus; they drive like bulldozers through whatever’s in their way.

(yep, sounds good)

When they see something that could be changed in the world, they don’t write a lengthy critique—they change it.

(hell yeah)

AIs are not capable of accessing whatever unpleasant childhood experience it is that gives you this hunger.

Wait, what?

(In fairness, I think he shows a little more self-awareness later on:

Absolutely anyone could have done the same things he did. In 2020, when Eric was subcontracting coding gigs out to the Third World, I was utterly broke, living in a room the size of a shoebox in London. I would scour my local supermarket for reduced-price items nearing their sell-by date, which meant that an alarmingly high percentage of my diet consisted of liverwurst. There was nothing stopping me from making thousands of dollars a week by doing exactly what Eric was doing. It didn’t require any skills at all—just a tiny amount of initiative. But he did it and I didn’t. Why?

But it still seemed like an odd sentiment.).

AIs are not capable of accessing whatever unpleasant childhood experience it is that gives you this hunger.

Wait, what?

What don't you get about it? He's making the point that most of the 'highly agentic tech bros' in these circles are basically narcissists driven by an intense psychological need for approval and even worship from others. I think he paints the picture quite well, and that it's rather accurate.

I guess it's a coherent worldview as far as it goes, but, like, how absolutely cloudcuckooland insane to hear "you can just do things" and think "this is bad" with a side of "they should be going to therapy instead". I mean, would it be better to not just do things, to sweat and whine about our condition, lie awake in the dark and weep for our sins? This is particularly baffling when a lot of "you can just do things"-ists are doing things that are in fact fake and gay, and pointing this out seems like a much more penetrating critique of the implicit ideology! "Narcissists driven by an intense psychological need for approval" also seems like a TLP/Internet use of "narcissism" to mean "stuff I don't like", though this is arguably orthogonal to the point.

I think what he's getting at is that the things that these people are doing are quite immoral, and have horrible externalities on the rest of us.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial 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.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats