A punk in 1977 was an outcast, but now you can do all sorts of things without being ejected from polite society, so the identity and community factor is much weaker, there is no 'us against them' anymore.
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New advertising slogan: “Join LessWrong, it’ll be great, you’ll be despised by everyone and can share a bedroom with three other outcasts!”
(Your point seems insightful and correct :)
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not sure what you guys are talking about... your implied definition of sociopath appears to have drifted enough in the 2-3 indirections here that it has no real relationship with mine
my usage is in terms of being *out* of status games and being able to program them for others
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iirc, scott's self-assessment in his gloss on the gervais principle was that he was mostly clueless in that scheme, if that is accurate, any sociopath moves he might make would be unconscious/accidental
I don't know enough about him to form an assessment one way or another
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as a longtime observer i'd say that things go suspiciously consistently well for scott in achieving personal and social goals, for someone who self-ids as clueless. it's a good persona but i don't buy it
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a (venkat-defined) sociopath in the rationalist community would present as ____?
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I'll defer to people who've observed the community more closely than me
For data, I'd suggest looking at the history of scandals that seem to erupt periodically out of their programs. If there's true GP-sociopaths in there, they may be outside the community proper, like Thiel
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Cult-like scandal dynamics are often a sign of unstable reality distortion fields due to the sociopaths in the picture solving for something much simpler than what the kool-aid offers the insiders... classic case being promising heaven/enlightenment but actually solving for sex
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Not saying that's what happens with rats, but it's the pattern of a high-dimensional false consciousness solving for something much simpler for someone on the outside leading to a fragility/impedance mismatch... stably growing orgs have matched inside/outside impedance
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This is very interesting and I don’t think I understand… what is impedance a metaphor for here?
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complexity of the goal
if you're solving for sex, but instead of just dating like a normal person you invent an entire elaborate religion and explanation for the world and a teaching program that has the desired side effect of grooming suitable targets... impedance mismatch
or you're really just trying to juice up the stock price to optimize your exit windfall as CEO, but you run elaborate innovation theater crap and give lofty culture speeches to employees, while at the same time revealing true preferences through sloppy management and neglect
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