This is how I feel about most (but not all) of the people I’ve met from Less Wrong.
There’s probably a more general effect in play here: people are smarter in writing than they are extemporaneously. IME this is true of almost everyone, but it’s especially true of people who are famous for their writing: Paul Graham, Steve Yegge, Eliezer Yudkowsky, people like that.
I think it has less to do with that, and more to do with being impressed by an initial command of concepts I’m not as strong with, followed by total incompetence in other areas. The idea behind rationality is that the approach is general.
There’s probably a more general effect in play here: people are smarter in writing than they are extemporaneously. IME this is true of almost everyone, but it’s especially true of people who are famous for their writing: Paul Graham, Steve Yegge, Eliezer Yudkowsky, people like that.
I think it has less to do with that, and more to do with being impressed by an initial command of concepts I’m not as strong with, followed by total incompetence in other areas. The idea behind rationality is that the approach is general.