Skip to content
By using Twitter’s services you agree to our Cookies Use. We and our partners operate globally and use cookies, including for analytics, personalisation, and ads.
  • Home Home Home, current page.
  • About

Saved searches

  • Remove
  • In this conversation
    Verified accountProtected Tweets @
Suggested users
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Language: English
    • Bahasa Indonesia
    • Bahasa Melayu
    • Català
    • Čeština
    • Dansk
    • Deutsch
    • English UK
    • Español
    • Filipino
    • Français
    • Hrvatski
    • Italiano
    • Magyar
    • Nederlands
    • Norsk
    • Polski
    • Português
    • Română
    • Slovenčina
    • Suomi
    • Svenska
    • Tiếng Việt
    • Türkçe
    • Ελληνικά
    • Български език
    • Русский
    • Српски
    • Українська мова
    • עִבְרִית
    • العربية
    • فارسی
    • मराठी
    • हिन्दी
    • বাংলা
    • ગુજરાતી
    • தமிழ்
    • ಕನ್ನಡ
    • ภาษาไทย
    • 한국어
    • 日本語
    • 简体中文
    • 繁體中文
  • Have an account? Log in
    Have an account?
    · Forgot password?

    New to Twitter?
    Sign up
vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

Conversational account. For work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian. IKEA builder.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

Tweets

  • © 2020 Twitter
  • About
  • Help Center
  • Terms
  • Privacy policy
  • Imprint
  • Cookies
  • Ads info
Dismiss
Previous
Next

Go to a person's profile

Saved searches

  • Remove
  • In this conversation
    Verified accountProtected Tweets @
Suggested users
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @

Promote this Tweet

Block

  • Tweet with a location

    You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more

    Your lists

    Create a new list


    Under 100 characters, optional

    Privacy

    Copy link to Tweet

    Embed this Tweet

    Embed this Video

    Add this Tweet to your website by copying the code below. Learn more

    Add this video to your website by copying the code below. Learn more

    Hmm, there was a problem reaching the server.

    By embedding Twitter content in your website or app, you are agreeing to the Twitter Developer Agreement and Developer Policy.

    Preview

    Why you're seeing this ad

    Log in to Twitter

    · Forgot password?
    Don't have an account? Sign up »

    Sign up for Twitter

    Not on Twitter? Sign up, tune into the things you care about, and get updates as they happen.

    Sign up
    Have an account? Log in »

    Two-way (sending and receiving) short codes:

    Country Code For customers of
    United States 40404 (any)
    Canada 21212 (any)
    United Kingdom 86444 Vodafone, Orange, 3, O2
    Brazil 40404 Nextel, TIM
    Haiti 40404 Digicel, Voila
    Ireland 51210 Vodafone, O2
    India 53000 Bharti Airtel, Videocon, Reliance
    Indonesia 89887 AXIS, 3, Telkomsel, Indosat, XL Axiata
    Italy 4880804 Wind
    3424486444 Vodafone
    » See SMS short codes for other countries

    Confirmation

     

    Welcome home!

    This timeline is where you’ll spend most of your time, getting instant updates about what matters to you.

    Tweets not working for you?

    Hover over the profile pic and click the Following button to unfollow any account.

    Say a lot with a little

    When you see a Tweet you love, tap the heart — it lets the person who wrote it know you shared the love.

    Spread the word

    The fastest way to share someone else’s Tweet with your followers is with a Retweet. Tap the icon to send it instantly.

    Join the conversation

    Add your thoughts about any Tweet with a Reply. Find a topic you’re passionate about, and jump right in.

    Learn the latest

    Get instant insight into what people are talking about now.

    Get more of what you love

    Follow more accounts to get instant updates about topics you care about.

    Find what's happening

    See the latest conversations about any topic instantly.

    Never miss a Moment

    Catch up instantly on the best stories happening as they unfold.

    Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 25
    • Report Tweet
    • Report NetzDG Violation

    Venkatesh Rao Retweeted T. Greer

    Damn, hadn’t read this. This is basically C. S. Lewis 1944 edition of my Gervais principle, but with reco that you aspire to a sort of conscious cluelessness (“craftsman”) and avoid sociopathy because it a) tempts you into being a “scoundrel” and b) sucks you towards nihilismhttps://twitter.com/Scholars_Stage/status/1320449302129500160 …

    Venkatesh Rao added,

    T. Greer @Scholars_Stage
    CS Lewis' essay "The Inner Ring" is probably the best thing he ever wrote. Everybody should read it at least once; most should re-read it once a year https://www.lewissociety.org/innerring/ 
    1:25 PM - 25 Oct 2020
    • 21 Retweets
    • 197 Likes
    • Jules Michael Peyton Jones Raoul Kennedy human therethereitsok Sam Barton Alex Schleber 👽😷 Murmansk Marton Havasreti
    16 replies 21 retweets 197 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 25
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        The spin is basically a Christian spin on the idea along the lines of meek inherit the earth or something. Narniya edition. It also lands roughly on something analogous yo what the postrat kids call “be good” or whatever (it’s their inner-ring ethics code, ironically).

        1 reply 0 retweets 12 likes
        Show this thread
      3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 25
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        To be clear, though the idea is structurally near identical (he’s conflated the loser and sociopath layers to some degree but out of disinterest in the distinction rather than unawareness), we draw very different conclusions from roughly the same phenomenology.

        1 reply 0 retweets 13 likes
        Show this thread
      4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 25
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        In particular, he is sensitive to the perils of the sociopath/inner ring layer, but not to its upside — what we’d call red-pill knowledge (general matrix sense, not mra). He thinks inner ring aspiration is entirely about simply wanting to be in the inner ring, not knowing more.

        2 replies 0 retweets 21 likes
        Show this thread
      5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 25
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        He is also a little too quick to present the craftsman/clueless state as some sort of blessed innocence state. Which is understandable for a Christian perspective. Do the right thing, let Jesus provide executive cover or something.

        2 replies 0 retweets 16 likes
        Show this thread
      6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 25
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        In practice, there are of course downsides to being the algorithmic robot that clueless/craftsman implies. The big one being you’re co-opted into sociopath crimes whether you want to or not. You may not be interested in the inner ring but the inner ring is interested in you.

        2 replies 0 retweets 33 likes
        Show this thread
      7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 25
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        If I were to tldr this in a Christian way it would probably be: “Don’t eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but recognize it for what it is. Stay in the Garden of Eden even after realizing there’s a world beyond. Nothing good comes of leaving it.”

        2 replies 0 retweets 11 likes
        Show this thread
      8. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 25
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        Lewis was born in 1898 so was 46 when he delivered this commencement speech, same as me now. But the maturity and compactness of the formulation suggests he probably thought it through in his mid thirties like I did. So like 1934-35 when Hitler and Stalin were on the rise.

        2 replies 0 retweets 11 likes
        Show this thread
      9. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 25
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        Which would explain his biases. I thought it through 2008-09... peak GFC but otherwise a pleasant late-neoliberal zeitgeist with no obvious big villains or dark clouds looming. That explains my biases. If I were thinking it through more recently I’d have landed darker too.

        2 replies 0 retweets 17 likes
        Show this thread
      10. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 25
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        In case it isn’t obvious, Lewis’ version is *much* darker and more pessimistic about human nature than mine. He’s essentially advising you to skip an entire large zone of the human condition that plays out in inner rings out of fear of moral corruption.

        2 replies 0 retweets 21 likes
        Show this thread
      11. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 25
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        My advice is to learn the game and how to play it. Don’t get addicted to it, but don’t sit it out either. It’s a kind of acting dead/waldenponding. Especially if fetishizing “craft” as an embodiment of “good” is the alternative. Inner rings are part of life.

        6 replies 1 retweet 36 likes
        Show this thread
      12. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 25
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        Venkatesh Rao Retweeted Sam Bhagwat

        This is well worth reading as a counterpoint in the genre. I was actually looking for it earlier to add to the thread but had forgotten the ref. tldr of this: real inner circles (Ie informational) as a burden of being misunderstood you are not free to clear up. Much Straussian.https://twitter.com/calcsam/status/1320540431298502659 …

        Venkatesh Rao added,

        Sam Bhagwat @calcsam
        Replying to @vgr
        I think the “realist” version of this advice is what Ellsberg told Kissinger about getting top secret clearance: https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/02/daniel-ellsberg-limitations-knowledge/ …
        3 replies 1 retweet 11 likes
        Show this thread
      13. End of conversation

    Loading seems to be taking a while.

    Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.

      Promoted Tweet

      false

      • © 2020 Twitter
      • About
      • Help Center
      • Terms
      • Privacy policy
      • Imprint
      • Cookies
      • Ads info