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Open Letter to Paul Graham (graymirror.substack.com)
25 points by adamhs on July 25, 2020 | hide | past | favorite | 11 comments



How does this stuff get in the front page?

Look, I’m all up for challenging PG’s essays and I think he has no problem with that, but this post is flat out garbage in every way.


You get 7 friends to upvote at the same time on a slow-news weekend?


You got it.

From a brand new account no less.



I upvoted it, and I am not a brand new account.


Because it is on topic, aka good hackers would find it interesting?


And the HN trend continues: attack the speaker, ignore the words, congratulate self, move on.

In the spirit of disclosure, I agree with Yarvin on many points. One position I've never seen thoroughly rebutted is the mutual doctrine/dogma of every public and ivy league University system. Just like the Catholic Church, you get turf disputes, subtle thematic variations, and degrees of skill differences. Just like the Protestants, you get dramatic variations of window dressing. But I challenge anyone to demonstrate a core, ideological difference held by any number of institutions. Obviously, Bob Jones University doesn't count, and why should they? The bare handful of private institutions that deviate from the Norm do not count in any other setting. Harvard™ makes an edict, the Church of Learn follows suit, heretics are smoked out, and Progress marches forward.


We get it, Mencius, you still think you're the smartest person in the room.


I'm all for punching up and PG often writes total BS, but universities do not universally agree because they are church states. Let's keep hitting graham tho. He's the real powerful idiot.


It's "state church (organs)", not "church states".


What was happening between 1920 and 1940? The universities were taking power. In 1900, the idea of a professor telling the government what to do was borderline absurd. By 1940, it was normal. By 1960, it was universal—all “public policy” in future would be determined by “science."

And, because the Ring works like that, power was taking them—with its favorite toy, money.

This letter is great, actually.




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