That seems like a very charitable reading of the comment
I was commenting on his overall stance from his comments throughout the threads here, not only on that particular first comment. I agree that the part you cite doesn’t sound defensible. I considered his further comments to be admissions of “Okay, you all have a point, but …” (If I’m right with my interpretation, he could’ve been more clear about the part of “sorry, you all have a point and the initial comment was too crude.”)
Edit: FWIW, I thought the info/arguments you gave about why it’s common practice in finance to carefully monitor romantic or sexual conflicts of interests were compelling, and your point about how EAs maybe shouldn’t think they can do better based on first-principles reasoning also seems wise.
I was commenting on his overall stance from his comments throughout the threads here, not only on that particular first comment. I agree that the part you cite doesn’t sound defensible. I considered his further comments to be admissions of “Okay, you all have a point, but …” (If I’m right with my interpretation, he could’ve been more clear about the part of “sorry, you all have a point and the initial comment was too crude.”)
Edit: FWIW, I thought the info/arguments you gave about why it’s common practice in finance to carefully monitor romantic or sexual conflicts of interests were compelling, and your point about how EAs maybe shouldn’t think they can do better based on first-principles reasoning also seems wise.