[HN Gopher] Vitalik Buterin's philosophical essays: they're not ...
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Vitalik Buterin's philosophical essays: they're not good
Author : davidgerard
Score : 10 points
Date : 2022-09-16 22:01 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (davidgerard.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (davidgerard.co.uk)
| wmf wrote:
| Maybe Vitalik should take Balaji's advice and write under a
| pseudonym. I wonder how much attention his writing would get.
| lazzlazzlazz wrote:
| I didn't have a lot of respect for David Girard before this, and
| this essay really made me certain: David Girard is not very
| sharp. I revisited a few of Vitalik's recent essays and in all
| honesty believe they're lucid[1] and content-rich[2] even when he
| strays outside his domain of specialization[3].
|
| Girard seems like a mid-tier but highly-focused motivated
| reasoner[4] who is working on a specific brand of anti-tech
| journalism. Nothing to see here really, even if you dislike
| crypto and Vitalik's projects.
|
| [1]: https://vitalik.ca/general/2022/09/09/ens.html
|
| [2]: https://vitalik.ca/general/2022/08/04/zkevm.html
|
| [3]: https://vitalik.ca/general/2022/07/13/networkstates.html
|
| [4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivated_reasoning
| chrisbigelow wrote:
| > Buterin comes from a long tradition of Silicon Valley special
| smart boys, who have had it hammered into them that domain
| expertise -- i.e., actually knowing stuff -- pales into
| insignificance compared to pulling ideas out of your backside by
| virtue of your superior intelligence and upbringing and social
| position.
|
| I detest this worldview. New knowledge is formed through creative
| conjecture and criticism. The creation of new ideas being
| restricted to only experts, those who "actually know stuff"
| shrinks the pool of creators of new knowledge. What we should
| strive for is better explanations of reality, not a restriction
| on who can make those explanations.
| smoldesu wrote:
| Vitalik Buterin is indeed a smart guy with his heart in the right
| place, but every time he opens his mouth the nerd in me winces
| and prepares for impact. Even when cryptocurrency interested me,
| I found his talks to be weirdly insufferable and content-adverse.
| It's interesting to see more people share the opinion that his
| musings aren't really hard-hitting.
| TraitorJoes wrote:
| .
| mikewave wrote:
| Is there any evidence Buterin is on the spectrum, rather than
| just being a Standard Nerd?
| exolymph wrote:
| Context note: David Gerard is the dude who tried to get Scott
| Alexander canceled. He fed a lot of dirt to that NYT reporter.
| Whether you think his crusade is legitimate is up to you, but I
| figure y'all might want to know who you're reading.
| codewithcheese wrote:
| Thanks, didnt know that. What was his stated motivation?
| davidgerard wrote:
| I'm eager to find out!
| gjvc wrote:
| I've always thought that the bitcoin paper isn't as well-written
| as some people make it out to be.
| TraitorJoes wrote:
| slater wrote:
| Luckily for us, your hn posts don't matter, either.
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
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