I thought it made sense to use the word “cult” pejoratively in the specific context of what the grandparent was trying to say, but it was a pretty noncentral usage (as the hyperlink to “Every Cause Wants To Be …” was meant to indicate); I don’t think the standard advice is going to directly apply well to the case of my disappointment with what the rationalist community is in 2019—although the standard advice might be a fertile source of ideas for how to diversify my “portfolio” of social ties, which is definitely worth doing independently of the Sorites problem about where to draw the category boundary around “cults”. (I was wondering if anyone was going to notice the irony of the grandparent mentioning the sunk cost fallacy!)
I have at least two more posts to finish about the cognitive function of categories (working titles: “Schelling Categories, and Simple Membership Tests” and “Instrumental Categories, and War”) that need to go on this website because they’re part of a Sequence and don’t make sense anywhere else. After that, I might reallocate attention back to my other avocations.
I thought it made sense to use the word “cult” pejoratively in the specific context of what the grandparent was trying to say, but it was a pretty noncentral usage (as the hyperlink to “Every Cause Wants To Be …” was meant to indicate); I don’t think the standard advice is going to directly apply well to the case of my disappointment with what the rationalist community is in 2019—although the standard advice might be a fertile source of ideas for how to diversify my “portfolio” of social ties, which is definitely worth doing independently of the Sorites problem about where to draw the category boundary around “cults”. (I was wondering if anyone was going to notice the irony of the grandparent mentioning the sunk cost fallacy!)
I have at least two more posts to finish about the cognitive function of categories (working titles: “Schelling Categories, and Simple Membership Tests” and “Instrumental Categories, and War”) that need to go on this website because they’re part of a Sequence and don’t make sense anywhere else. After that, I might reallocate attention back to my other avocations.