I have been contemplating this point. One of the things that sets off red flags for people outside a group is when people in the group appear to have cut’n’pasted the leader’s opinions into their heads. And that’s definitely something that happens around LW.
I don’t know. On the one hand side, that’s how you would expect it to look if the leader is right. On the other hand, “cult leader is right” is also how I would expect it to feel if cult leader was merely persuasive. On the third hand side, I don’t feel like I absorbed lots of novel things from cult leader, but mostly concretified notions and better terms for ideas I’d held already, and I remember many Sequences posts having a critical comment at the top.
A further good sign is that the Sequences are mostly retellings of existing literature. It doesn’t really match the “crazy ideas held for ingroup status” profile of cultishness.
The cut’n’paste not merely of the opinions, but of the phrasing is the tell that this is undigested. Possibly this could be explained by complete correctness with literary brilliance, but we’re talking about one-draft daily blog posts here.
I don’t know. On the one hand side, that’s how you would expect it to look if the leader is right. On the other hand, “cult leader is right” is also how I would expect it to feel if cult leader was merely persuasive. On the third hand side, I don’t feel like I absorbed lots of novel things from cult leader, but mostly concretified notions and better terms for ideas I’d held already, and I remember many Sequences posts having a critical comment at the top.
A further good sign is that the Sequences are mostly retellings of existing literature. It doesn’t really match the “crazy ideas held for ingroup status” profile of cultishness.
The cut’n’paste not merely of the opinions, but of the phrasing is the tell that this is undigested. Possibly this could be explained by complete correctness with literary brilliance, but we’re talking about one-draft daily blog posts here.
I feel like charitably, another explanation would just be that it’s simply a better phrasing than people come up with on their own.
So? Fast doesn’t imply bad. Quite the opposite, fast-work-with-short-feedback-cycle is one of the best ways to get really good.