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This story viscerally conveys a strange asymmetry in modern creative work: a person like Max can be doing work which produces civilizational-level benefits affecting many millions of people… and yet bad-faith behavior by a *single person* can seriously drain gumption.

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Max Roser

@MaxCRoser

· Apr 4, 2021

This thread is more personal than most of the things I share here, but I’m at my limit with Jason Hickel. I want to explain why I dislike him so much and how we got here. This is a personal story over several years so it’ll take a bit of time.

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5:32 PM · Apr 4, 2021Twitter Web App

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This seems to be a relatively common problem! People in Max's position usually even *know* that such asymmetric impact is inappropriate and untenable—but of course that doesn't stop it from happening. Maddening.

Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Apr 4, 2021

I'm not sure what the right response is. People who avoid this problem often do so by ignoring public engagement and criticism. But good-faith critical engagement is essential! I suppose if one masters Stoic advice well enough, one can avoid this problem—but seems rare!

I like

's advice on criticism ("listen to it with the assumption that it's true, then decide if I want to act on it or not.") But I don't think it solves asymmetric-gumption-attack: Max listened with an open mind, decided he didn't want to act, but still got waylaid.

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part of the asymmetry is because people who are critical are motivated to write something, and people who are supportive get aggregated into a number (follower count, retweet count, etc)

@QiaochuYuan

Apr 4, 2021

hence: write more supportive comments and replies to work you think is good! can have a much bigger impact than you might think!

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It is more than bad faith behavior bu a single person. The red actors for the Guardian can easily check if what they publish is bad faith or not. They publish it because it fits the narrative they want to push. Same for the followers.

Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Apr 4, 2021

It's a good point: there are lots of enablers here. The followers are an interestingly different story. I think many (in fact probably most) of them really are engaging in good-faith; they're just confused.

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and

If you read the thread in detail you will notice Max Roser lies about what his detractor is writing though.

James O'Leary

@jpohhhh

Apr 4, 2021

I thought I read it carefully, but I missed that, and upon reflection, you're right, I didnt: can you cherry pick one example and I'll look for more?

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As much as I appreciate the good work Max does, I wouldn't go so far as to claim that it has civilizational benefits. Atleast it's unclear to me if it has that big a utility.