Open Thread 163
This is the weekly visible open thread. Odd-numbered open threads will be no-politics, even-numbered threads will be politics-allowed. This one is odd-numbered, so be careful. Otherwise, post about anything else you want. Also:
1. Thanks to the 2,374 people who filled in the survey last week. The strongest consensus was that you wanted “highlights from the comments” threads to continue - literally zero people said the risks involved in having comments signal-boosted were significant enough that I should stop doing this. So: it’s official ACX policy that I will continue making these threads. If you don’t want your comments posted in them, you can say something to that effect in the comments, eg “don’t highlight this” (though I can’t guarantees that trolls/bad actors won’t use that to zero in on ways to cause the most trouble). If you’re really concerned, consider not commenting on ACX under your real name.
2. Some people were concerned that my post on DNP was insufficiently condemnatory and might make people want to use it. These concerns were potentially correct. Although the majority of people correctly interpreted the post as saying the drug was very dangerous (median danger rating 8/10), 5 out of 2,374 people said they were going to near-term use DNP based on what they read. I don’t know if this is just Lizardman’s Constant, but in case it isn’t, a special message to those five people: PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS. I highlighted a few especially interesting risks, but there are various others I didn’t mention, and others that probably nobody knows about yet. The blog post didn’t provide the necessary information to use it effectively or to minimize risk (BECAUSE I DIDN’T WANT PEOPLE TO DO THIS), whatever random Internet source you’ve found that claims to provide that information isn’t necessarily trustworthy, and even if everything goes right you will just gain the weight back later. To everyone else: thank you for raising those concerns. I am still trying to find the right balance between helping people make good choices vs. trying to be a level more sophisticated than “police officer teaching a D.A.R.E. class to high schoolers”. Your feedback helps with that.
3. Some people were concerned about the investment opportunity mentioned in the post. The feedback on this one was complicated enough that I’m banishing it to a longer comment here.
4. Please don’t email me with comments on my posts. There are 32,872 people on the ACX mailing list. If any substantial fraction of them email me their comments, my inbox will be so overwhelmed that I’ll never read any of them or anything else. Instead, please comment on the blog, where everybody can benefit from your insight. If you’re not comfortable having your name attached to your comment, choose a pseudonym and then comment on the blog. If you’re not comfortable commenting publicly, but you still want me to know who you are (eg because you’re an expert in the field I’m writing about, or a famous person, or a personal friend of mine) then I guess you can send me an email. Thanks for your understanding.
5. Substack has removed the “like” button from comments here, as per your feedback. Their team has told me they’re working on some of your other requests like an edit button and a way of tagging new comments. Some of this will take a while as they do some deeper restructuring of how comments work, so please be patient (unlike me when I was pestering them for updates).