Thus, by saying “it would be a waste of Eliezer’s time to publish papers”, what you appear to be saying is, “we already know that Eliezer is right about everything”.
That really isn’t what Luke appears to be saying. It would be fairer to say “a particularly aggressive reader could twist this so that it means...”
It may sometimes be worth optimising speech such that it is hard to even willfully misinterpret what you say (or interpret based on an already particularly high prior for ‘statement will be arrogant’) but this is a different consideration to trying not to (unintentionally) appear arrogant to a neutral audience.
That really isn’t what Luke appears to be saying. It would be fairer to say “a particularly aggressive reader could twist this so that it means...”
It may sometimes be worth optimising speech such that it is hard to even willfully misinterpret what you say (or interpret based on an already particularly high prior for ‘statement will be arrogant’) but this is a different consideration to trying not to (unintentionally) appear arrogant to a neutral audience.
For what it is worth, I had an almost identical reaction when reading the statement.
Fair enough; it’s quite possible that my interpretation was too aggressive.
It’s the right place for erring on the side of aggressive interpretation. We’ve been encouraged (and primed) to do so!