Quite touching reading about all the emails got during his hiatus. astralcodexten.substack.com/p/still-alive
I forget this too often, so a catechism: praise is positive sum, and most people are not nearly as close to the point of diminishing returns as I might imagine!
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When I email someone who’s written a popular book/essay/paper, I always subconsciously imagine that email’s going into a black hole, a drop in a bucket full of fan mail. But most of the time I get a reply which makes it obvious that’s not the case!
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It’s a weird asymmetry in my theory of mind. For whatever reason, the amount of happiness I imagine a nice note would bring to someone else is less than what I usually feel myself in the same situation!
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(Speaking of praise, Scott’s precise-but-conversational prose styling is just astoundingly good and I’m jealous!!)
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So say we all
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david, fwiw i really like your prose style too! not sure how to describe it but it's very refreshingly straightforward and to-the-point
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I can’t remember ever misparsing or misunderstanding a DChapman sentence. They’re so thoughtfully constructed.
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David’s prose regularly makes me laugh out loud while discussing abstract philosophy, which is quite an impressive feat!
"Upgrade your cargo cult for the win" is one of my favorite titles ever. It's funny, deeply insightful, memorable, and original. Even better: I find myself using "Upgrade your X for the win" as a very helpful generative template in other situations. All in 7 words.
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(I see the pattern everywhere. I used to call it "the ratchet [of understanding]". But the term was too imprecise, and it wasn't a publicly shared understanding. Having the essay and striking, memorable shared vocabulary for a very similar idea is _so helpful_!!!)
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