I’ve become a bit more suspicious of Cade Metz, now that I’ve noticed that he had some sort of association with former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne. My impression of Byrne has long been that his personality is sort of like Trump’s, but a bit less intelligent.
Anyone writing puff pieces about Byrne is likely to, at best, have poor judgment. That doesn’t tell me much about the current controversy, but I now put a moderate probability on the idea that Metz knows he’s working for some malicious people.
Also, Metz contacted me on June 1, wanting to ask questions about the rationality community and its overlap with Silicon Valley (he did not mention SSC). I offered to answer questions by email, but not by phone. He did not respond. I don’t infer much from this, beyond the fact that his initial interest in a story was not due to something controversial that Scott posted in June.
I sent the following email to pui-wing.tam@nytimes.com (before I noticed Metz’s puff pieces about Byrne):
I’m puzzled by your apparent plan to publicize Scott Alexander’s real name.
It sounds like you’re following a policy which has a chilling effect on any psychiatrist who wishes to comment on public affairs. Can you explain how broad this policy is, and the purpose behind it? I’m having trouble imagining how it serves any professional purpose.
I’ve seen a lot of complaints about Metz’s history, but they all seem backwards to me. They seem like a satire of virtue ethics.
Who do you think he’s “working for”? If he is working for outside forces (eg, keeping a source happy), then drawing attention to it is exactly the best way to take it out of his hands and force him to work for his editor; and force his editor to work for the paper.
Writing puff pieces sounds more lazy than malicious to me.
I’ve become a bit more suspicious of Cade Metz, now that I’ve noticed that he had some sort of association with former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne. My impression of Byrne has long been that his personality is sort of like Trump’s, but a bit less intelligent.
Anyone writing puff pieces about Byrne is likely to, at best, have poor judgment. That doesn’t tell me much about the current controversy, but I now put a moderate probability on the idea that Metz knows he’s working for some malicious people.
Also, Metz contacted me on June 1, wanting to ask questions about the rationality community and its overlap with Silicon Valley (he did not mention SSC). I offered to answer questions by email, but not by phone. He did not respond. I don’t infer much from this, beyond the fact that his initial interest in a story was not due to something controversial that Scott posted in June.
I sent the following email to pui-wing.tam@nytimes.com (before I noticed Metz’s puff pieces about Byrne):
I’ve seen a lot of complaints about Metz’s history, but they all seem backwards to me. They seem like a satire of virtue ethics.
Who do you think he’s “working for”? If he is working for outside forces (eg, keeping a source happy), then drawing attention to it is exactly the best way to take it out of his hands and force him to work for his editor; and force his editor to work for the paper.
Writing puff pieces sounds more lazy than malicious to me.