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Andy Matuschak
@andy_matuschak
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
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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.
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Andy Matuschak
@andy_matuschak
Replying to
@andy_matuschak
I like
@sama
'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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Boris | Building smart products
@iamborisv
Replying to
@andy_matuschak
There seems to be no right response because of all the psychological variations. Although there is some point in differentiating criticism for the sake of criticism, and criticism for sake of searching the truth. the first to be ignored, the latter to be addressed.
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