Nope; I only saw his comments when reading through the sequences, and thought they were often sharp (in both senses of the word). There are no doubt selection effects at play in which ones still existed for me to read them.
Caledonian was attacking posts because it knew it was getting under people’s skin.
To which the obvious response is to not let it get under your skin, and if you lack that level of control over your skin, to deliberately develop it.
But being able to handle criticism properly is a very important rational skill. Those who feel they cannot do it need to adjust their levels of self-advertisement as rationalists accordingly.
being able to handle criticism properly is a very important rational skill
You are absolutely right. Some parts of this very important rational skill are: properly discerning genuine criticism from trolling; properly discerning whether the person posting it is a useful or a harmful presence in the forum; properly deciding a useful course of action.
I think that Eliezer has indeed demonstrated possession of this very important rational skill in his handling of V_V’s criticism.
Were you around back then? Caledonian was attacking posts because it knew it was getting under people’s skin.
Nope; I only saw his comments when reading through the sequences, and thought they were often sharp (in both senses of the word). There are no doubt selection effects at play in which ones still existed for me to read them.
To which the obvious response is to not let it get under your skin, and if you lack that level of control over your skin, to deliberately develop it.
To quote ShannonFriedman from another post:
(Replacing ‘write bylaws’, of course, with ‘respond positively to criticism.’)
Willpower isn’t an infinite resource.
But being able to handle criticism properly is a very important rational skill. Those who feel they cannot do it need to adjust their levels of self-advertisement as rationalists accordingly.
You are absolutely right. Some parts of this very important rational skill are: properly discerning genuine criticism from trolling; properly discerning whether the person posting it is a useful or a harmful presence in the forum; properly deciding a useful course of action.
I think that Eliezer has indeed demonstrated possession of this very important rational skill in his handling of V_V’s criticism.