Nuance. It doesn't seem that the "public geniuses" themselves are driving impactful decision-making, but well-meaning folks in one of many thin layers "surrounding" them. The relevant point though is that this layer wants to be seen as forward-thinking (they could be advocating vaccines or crypto in previous eras, so you can't blame them for the "incorrectness" of the fad).
Nor are they sycophants; I'd expect they know independence of thought is a prerequisite for getting into those positions
A rough picture of what these guys smell like are the "journalistic-influencers": Peter Robinson of Hoover, Dwarkesh, etc. I hope dang or mod-wannabes are different (maybe they don't actually aspire to be impactful) ?
Question: did these journalistic-influencers have to go through a LinkedIn stage where they vy for the public-geniuses' attention? I suspect not-- even in the case of Dwarkesh.
I wanted to include Hannah-Arendt's ideas somewhere in this diagnosis but this is a long term project looking for collaborators :)
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[ 27.0 ms ] story [ 827 ms ] threadNor are they sycophants; I'd expect they know independence of thought is a prerequisite for getting into those positions
A rough picture of what these guys smell like are the "journalistic-influencers": Peter Robinson of Hoover, Dwarkesh, etc. I hope dang or mod-wannabes are different (maybe they don't actually aspire to be impactful) ?
Question: did these journalistic-influencers have to go through a LinkedIn stage where they vy for the public-geniuses' attention? I suspect not-- even in the case of Dwarkesh.
I wanted to include Hannah-Arendt's ideas somewhere in this diagnosis but this is a long term project looking for collaborators :)