We’re doing politics? Cool.
In a very short-term sense, “death panels”. We provide a terrible end-of-life experience for people; we keep people barely at great expense in states of pain and confusion as long as possible even when this is not something that they would want; finite healthcare dollars are thus spent torturing the dying rather than fixing treatable problems in otherwise healthy people.
An attempt to make a dent in this (by at least getting people to talk about advance-care directives, for example) was derailed in a failed attempt to score some political points. As a result, this will continue to be a problem for the foreseeable future, because it’s no longer a technical problem, it’s a Red Team/Blue Team thing. Well done, politics.
I strongly support this post.
It would be much better if it were less inflammatory. The last sentence, in particular, is reprehensible. But you respond to the substance of the criticism you get, not the criticism you might want or wish to have at a later time. Otherwise you might as well be slashing your own tires. The vast majority of the discussion below is simple tone policing. Someone’s telling you that your house is on fire, and you’re complaining that they’re shouting.
It’s correct that it’s incredibly troubling that the author didn’t even consider romantic drama in designing his bootcamp. It’s correct that these are really not impressive outcomes. They’re moderately-functional outcomes. Shouldn’t there be some sort of control group where people attempt a similar level of life-changing upward momentum on their own and see if it was actually effective to cede their autonomy? It is correct that trying to LARP a bizarre combination of Ender’s Game and Fight Club is perhaps not a sign that this person has any idea how grown-ups work.
And most troubling of all, why weren’t these issues noted by anyone who Duncan ran this idea by first? Why does it take this level of willingness to break with social norms to notice the skulls? And no, intoning “I Have Noticed The Skulls” doesn’t mean you’ve actually addressed the problem unless you actually address it. Twelfth virtue!
In a broader sense, what the hell happened? I read the Sequences roughly when they came out, commented here occasionally, moved over to SSC and, more often, the associated subreddit. I donate effectively and regularly, I do my best to tax people’s bullshit with bets, and I do feats with spaced repetition. Apparently while I was doing that and not being directly involved in the community, it turned into… this. Scott Alexander is getting published in moderately prestigious outlets. AI risk is mainstream. Effective Altruism is considerably more mainstream than it was. But the community at the center of it has, if anything, regressed, from what I’ve seen here.