It took me 5 attempts to read that sentence. I think you’re saying “when different parts of orgs report how well they’re doing, the difference is primarily explained by how salesy they generally are”. To state the obvious, if Nate had said “Y’know what, it’s going great, everything’s fine, don’t worry about us!” then I’d’ve felt it was more obviously a bit worrying from the perspective of someone on the outside, but especially a somewhat negative report feels like a not obviously adversarial signal.
And now I’m having trouble interpreting your comment! :P
Your paraphrase of Larks’s sentence sounds plausible (though I am also confused about what he was trying to say), but I don’t see how your “To state the obvious...” responds to it. I didn’t take Larks to be saying that he finds Nate’s sentence worrying, but rather that he just doesn’t consider it much evidence of how much progress MIRI is making one way or the other.
And now I’m having trouble interpreting your comment! :P
Your paraphrase of Larks’s sentence sounds plausible (though I am also confused about what he was trying to say), but I don’t see how your “To state the obvious...” responds to it. I didn’t take Larks to be saying that he finds Nate’s sentence worrying, but rather that he just doesn’t consider it much evidence of how much progress MIRI is making one way or the other.