A problem with overly kind PR is that many people know that you don’t deserve the reputation. So if you start to fall, you can fall hard and fast.
Likewise it incentivises investigation that you can’t back up.
If everyone thinks I am lovely, but I am two faced, I create a juicy story any time I am cruel. Not so if am known to be grumpy.
eg My sense is that EA did this a bit with the press tour around What We Owe The Future. It built up a sense of wisdom that wasn’t necessarily deserved, so with FTX it all came crashing down.
Personally I don’t want you to think I am kind and wonderful. I am often thoughtless and grumpy. I think you should expect a mediocre to good experience. But I’m not Santa Claus.
I am never sure whether rats are very wise or very naïve to push for reputation over PR, but I think it’s much more sustainable.
@ESYudkowsky can’t really take a fall for being goofy. He’s always been goofy—it was priced in.
Many organisations think they are above maintaining the virtues they profess to possess, instead managing it with media relations.
In doing this they often fall harder eventually. Worse, they lose out on the feedback from their peers accurately seeing their current state.
Journalists often frustrate me as a group, but they aren’t dumb. Whatever they think is worth writing, they probably have a deeper sense of what is going on.
Personally I’d prefer to get that in small sips, such that I can grow, than to have to drain my cup to the bottom.
A problem with overly kind PR is that many people know that you don’t deserve the reputation. So if you start to fall, you can fall hard and fast.
Likewise it incentivises investigation that you can’t back up.
If everyone thinks I am lovely, but I am two faced, I create a juicy story any time I am cruel. Not so if am known to be grumpy.
eg My sense is that EA did this a bit with the press tour around What We Owe The Future. It built up a sense of wisdom that wasn’t necessarily deserved, so with FTX it all came crashing down.
Personally I don’t want you to think I am kind and wonderful. I am often thoughtless and grumpy. I think you should expect a mediocre to good experience. But I’m not Santa Claus.
I am never sure whether rats are very wise or very naïve to push for reputation over PR, but I think it’s much more sustainable.
@ESYudkowsky can’t really take a fall for being goofy. He’s always been goofy—it was priced in.
Many organisations think they are above maintaining the virtues they profess to possess, instead managing it with media relations.
In doing this they often fall harder eventually. Worse, they lose out on the feedback from their peers accurately seeing their current state.
Journalists often frustrate me as a group, but they aren’t dumb. Whatever they think is worth writing, they probably have a deeper sense of what is going on.
Personally I’d prefer to get that in small sips, such that I can grow, than to have to drain my cup to the bottom.