I strongly downvoted this post. This post fits a subgenre I’ve recently noticed at LW in which the author seems to be using writing style to say something about the substance being communicated. I guess I’ve been here too long and have gotten tired of people trying to persuade me with style, which I consider to be, at best, a waste of my time.
This post also did not explain why I should care that mesaoptimizer systems are kind of like Lacan’s theory. I had to read some Lacan in college, putatively a chunk that was especially influential on the continental philosophers we were studying. Foucault seems like Hemingway by comparison. If Lacan was right about anything, it’s not because he followed anything like the epistemic standards we value here. Or if he did, he did so illegibly, which is as valuable as not doing it at all.
If you can see the game that someone is playing with themselves, if you can get underneath the lies they tell themselves and access their desires directly, you can play them like an instrument and they will have no idea how you’re doing it.
This seems important, so I ask you to provide evidence supporting it.
I had to read some Lacan in college, putatively a chunk that was especially influential on the continental philosophers we were studying.
Same. I am seeing a trend where rats who had to spend time with this stuff in college say, “No, please don’t go here it’s not worth it.” Then get promptly ignored.
The fundamental reason this stuff is not worth engaging with is because it’s a Rorschach. Using this stuff is a verbal performance. We can make analogies to Tarot cards but in the end we’re just cold reading our readers.
Lacan and his ilk aren’t some low hanging source of zero day mind hacks for rats. Down this road lies a quagmire, which is not worth the effort to traverse.
This post also did not explain why I should care that mesaoptimizer systems are kind of like Lacan’s theory.
I think a lot of posts here don’t try to explain why you should care about the connections they’re drawing, they just draw them and let the reader decide whether that’s interesting? Personally, I found the model in the post interesting for its own sake.
I strongly downvoted this post. This post fits a subgenre I’ve recently noticed at LW in which the author seems to be using writing style to say something about the substance being communicated. I guess I’ve been here too long and have gotten tired of people trying to persuade me with style, which I consider to be, at best, a waste of my time.
This post also did not explain why I should care that mesaoptimizer systems are kind of like Lacan’s theory. I had to read some Lacan in college, putatively a chunk that was especially influential on the continental philosophers we were studying. Foucault seems like Hemingway by comparison. If Lacan was right about anything, it’s not because he followed anything like the epistemic standards we value here. Or if he did, he did so illegibly, which is as valuable as not doing it at all.
This seems important, so I ask you to provide evidence supporting it.
Same. I am seeing a trend where rats who had to spend time with this stuff in college say, “No, please don’t go here it’s not worth it.” Then get promptly ignored.
The fundamental reason this stuff is not worth engaging with is because it’s a Rorschach. Using this stuff is a verbal performance. We can make analogies to Tarot cards but in the end we’re just cold reading our readers.
Lacan and his ilk aren’t some low hanging source of zero day mind hacks for rats. Down this road lies a quagmire, which is not worth the effort to traverse.
I think a lot of posts here don’t try to explain why you should care about the connections they’re drawing, they just draw them and let the reader decide whether that’s interesting? Personally, I found the model in the post interesting for its own sake.