I had a reasonably close friend who, seven years ago, was unmasked as a compulsive liar and whose life turned out to be a house of cards. Watching it unravel was both upsetting and enchanting. Today, they are the CEO of a well-funded startup.
Around the same time, my advisor was involved in a very public academic scandal when it turned out that his co-author had 100% fabricated their studyâs data. Once that came to light, people started digging, and it turned out that the co-author had been making stuff up for a long time undetected. He only got caught when two other researchers tried to replicate his methodsâan enormous liftâand couldnât.
I think it was Agnes Callard who wrote that itâs better to trust and to be taken advantage of sometimes than to be distrustful and close yourself off. In my personal life, I try to live by this. Itâs too easy to let scar tissue accumulate and find yourself immobilized.
But when large sums of moneyâparticularly other peopleâs moneyâare involved, we have to hold ourselves to higher standards, even/âespecially when it causes social friction.
Whatâs the opposite of âisolated demands for rigor,â motivated reasoning? Sam came in with big money and big talk and I get why we fell for itâI myself filled out the form to âcome hang out in the Bahamasâ with them earlier this year.
I agree very much with Jeffâs point that more clarity about whoâs doing what in the movement would be a great thing to build from this.
To weigh in on a personal note:
I had a reasonably close friend who, seven years ago, was unmasked as a compulsive liar and whose life turned out to be a house of cards. Watching it unravel was both upsetting and enchanting. Today, they are the CEO of a well-funded startup.
Around the same time, my advisor was involved in a very public academic scandal when it turned out that his co-author had 100% fabricated their studyâs data. Once that came to light, people started digging, and it turned out that the co-author had been making stuff up for a long time undetected. He only got caught when two other researchers tried to replicate his methodsâan enormous liftâand couldnât.
I think it was Agnes Callard who wrote that itâs better to trust and to be taken advantage of sometimes than to be distrustful and close yourself off. In my personal life, I try to live by this. Itâs too easy to let scar tissue accumulate and find yourself immobilized.
But when large sums of moneyâparticularly other peopleâs moneyâare involved, we have to hold ourselves to higher standards, even/âespecially when it causes social friction.
Whatâs the opposite of âisolated demands for rigor,â motivated reasoning? Sam came in with big money and big talk and I get why we fell for itâI myself filled out the form to âcome hang out in the Bahamasâ with them earlier this year.
I agree very much with Jeffâs point that more clarity about whoâs doing what in the movement would be a great thing to build from this.