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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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Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

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.

5:32 PM · Apr 4, 2021Twitter Web App

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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.