Venkat’s always been like that. I was telling him once about how as
an anarchist, I believed that we need an egalitarian society to fully
protect everyone, and he was really confused and said, you know there’s
always going to be inequality because some people are just better at
certain things than others, right? Like to me, ‘inequality’ means
‘people being jailed or starving and having no political recourse,’ and
to him, ‘inequality’ was ‘some people getting more respect because they
have more guitar skillz.’ He has a privileged background, though he’ll
deny it if you ask him. He told me he was Brahmin-caste, but that “it
doesn’t matter,” which is basically like being a straight white American
male and saying it doesn’t matter.
He had some other tweet earlier about how anyone who was taking the
world seriously now was ‘very stupid.’ What a dick. He’s the perfect
example of the kind of smart guy who can afford to laugh at life and
death matters, not because he’s some kind of Zen master, but because
he’s protected. He know this, and doesn’t seem to think it’s a moral
failing on his part.
What relation do “humanists” and “the humanities” have in this guys
mind? This is why I could never take SSC or anything in that little
bubble seriously. They can’t even get simple terminology correct.
I actually helped out one of the early Refactor Camps (RF conference). I even gave a talk.
Venkat himself can actually be really fun to be around, and sometimes he's surprisingly nice. The RF groupies in general are probably more fun to be around than say, a rationalist meetup. They're all nerds and a bit socially difficult, but for the most part, they have broader interests and can BS on a lot of things while keeping it light. Their jokes are way less cringey. Some of them, I would go so far as to say, are nice people. And they're less racist overall too, though not enough for a POC like me to want to stick around.
I agree. Venky's insight porn is driven by a sense of play, as opposed to the grim-faced, clenched-jaw, duty-driven, "We can only find THE TRUTH if we are faithfully RATIONAL" ethos. It allows him to be more intellectually honest.
He often writes these bizarre-sounding things when he's using his own weird, specific definitions. In his breakthrough essay, his word for workers who "work to live" is "losers," and doesn't really hash through the implications of that, which would have to be either kinda heartless or kinda crypto-Marxist. It just means something else when he says it.
Am I missing something? [*humanists* are people who study the humanities](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/humanist#Noun) and that's what I assumed he meant.
I've only ever heard it refer to the currents of humanism / secular humanism. Rather than the humanities as a group of academic disciplines (I say this as a person in the humanities). But if it's in a dictionary I guess I can't argue - might be a term that's more popular in certain regions.
Sorry to nitpick, but not all humanists are atheists and not all atheists are humanists.
Edit: for what it's worth, I'd never seen the "practitioner of the humanities" usage before this thread either.
^The linked tweet was tweeted by @vgr on May 25, 2018 22:26:42 UTC (10 Retweets | 44 Favorites)
Theory: if the humanities had had a stronger hand in shaping the
Internet we either would not have an Internet or a far worse Internet.
To err is human, and to truly mess things up you need engineers, but to
turn things into a catastrophic mess you need to add the humanists.
^^• Beep boop I’m a bot • Find out more about me at /r/tweettranscriberbot/ •
Venkat’s always been like that. I was telling him once about how as an anarchist, I believed that we need an egalitarian society to fully protect everyone, and he was really confused and said, you know there’s always going to be inequality because some people are just better at certain things than others, right? Like to me, ‘inequality’ means ‘people being jailed or starving and having no political recourse,’ and to him, ‘inequality’ was ‘some people getting more respect because they have more guitar skillz.’ He has a privileged background, though he’ll deny it if you ask him. He told me he was Brahmin-caste, but that “it doesn’t matter,” which is basically like being a straight white American male and saying it doesn’t matter.
He had some other tweet earlier about how anyone who was taking the world seriously now was ‘very stupid.’ What a dick. He’s the perfect example of the kind of smart guy who can afford to laugh at life and death matters, not because he’s some kind of Zen master, but because he’s protected. He know this, and doesn’t seem to think it’s a moral failing on his part.
What relation do “humanists” and “the humanities” have in this guys mind? This is why I could never take SSC or anything in that little bubble seriously. They can’t even get simple terminology correct.
Ah yes, the military-industrial complex, well known for designing its projects for the benefit of all humanity!
(psst) ribbonfarm was never good
Was it ever not bad? It’s the same kind of trite insight porn as SSC, just not as crypto-racist
Was Ribbon Farm ever good? It was too impenetrable for me.
I don’t have much time for RF, but isn’t he joking? I’m with this guy: “your meta-trolling is masterful. 😂”
^The linked tweet was tweeted by @vgr on May 25, 2018 22:26:42 UTC (10 Retweets | 44 Favorites)
Theory: if the humanities had had a stronger hand in shaping the Internet we either would not have an Internet or a far worse Internet. To err is human, and to truly mess things up you need engineers, but to turn things into a catastrophic mess you need to add the humanists.
^^• Beep boop I’m a bot • Find out more about me at /r/tweettranscriberbot/ •
Seems a little pointless. Indeed, most philologists don’t build bridges, or not as well as civil engineers do. So what?