I still think I’ve found being pseudonymous more useful than writing under my name. It does feel like I’m less restricted in my thinking because I know there are no direct negative or positive effects on me personally for sharing my thoughts. So for example, I’ve found it easier to express genuine appreciation for things or people surprisingly. Perhaps I’m too obsessed with noticing how the shape of my thoughts changes depending on how I think they will be perceived but it has been very interesting to notice that. Like it genuinely feels like there are more thoughts I am allowed to think when I’m trying on a pseudonym (I think this was much starker a few months ago so maybe I’ve squeezed out most of the benefit by now).
As someone who is pretty far on the anti-pseudonym side of the debate, I think your point about caveats and time-saved is a real concern
Idk this just occurred to me though.. what about norms of starting a comment with:
epistemic status: blurted
or
epistemic status: halp I just felt someone needed to say this thing, y’all pls help me decide if true
And couldn’t that be fun too, maybe? If you let it be so?
Yeah, that does seem useful.
I still think I’ve found being pseudonymous more useful than writing under my name. It does feel like I’m less restricted in my thinking because I know there are no direct negative or positive effects on me personally for sharing my thoughts. So for example, I’ve found it easier to express genuine appreciation for things or people surprisingly. Perhaps I’m too obsessed with noticing how the shape of my thoughts changes depending on how I think they will be perceived but it has been very interesting to notice that. Like it genuinely feels like there are more thoughts I am allowed to think when I’m trying on a pseudonym (I think this was much starker a few months ago so maybe I’ve squeezed out most of the benefit by now).