VrimjApr 29, 2023
I think it is interesting and says something about tech in general that even Elon understood he had to hire rocket scientists and car manufacturing engineers and neuroscientists for those projects but he doesn't appear to have hired a single expert in communication or social dynamics when taking over Twitter, the same appears to be true for every other newly founded social network where I have taken a look at the leadership.
Show threadVrimjApr 29, 2023

There is a very specific sort of thing here that I don't have language for but I have noticed. People who work with things respect other people with expertise in how to work on things.

Often they do not see skills with people as real unless they are deeply abstracted and not really about people anymore but the things that make up people, eg neuroscience.

Show threadJon (now at neuromatch.social)Apr 29, 2023
@Vrimj agreed (and I also don't have the language for it). Also people who work in tech often devalue skills of working on non-tech things *and* skills of working with people. After all at the end of the day it's all just 1s and 0s right? šŸ˜‚
Show threadVrimjApr 29, 2023

@jdp23

Ohh digitalist is a decent working label, I have heard the ones and zeros thing too.

It is like they think the idea that you can apply your discipline's norms and models to the world in a really broad way is somehow unique or uniquely productive in computer science.

Show threadDavid MankinsApr 29, 2023

@Vrimj @jdp23

Thereā€™s an element of hyper-rationalism, too. ā€œItā€™s logic and reason all the way downā€, without realizing that *judgment* doesnā€™t fit so well into an axiomatic system, if only because one must weigh oneā€™s choice of axioms using oneā€™s judgment

Show threadVrimj

@lain_7 @jdp23

This isn't really about being rational, it is about mistaking internal feelings of competence for an objective evaluation of your capabilities.

But my expectation is that generally I am going to be dealing with feelings that have been mistaken for facts when someone invokes rationality.

Apr 30, 2023 at 2:36amWeb
Show threadDavid MankinsApr 30, 2023

@Vrimj @jdp23 Maybe that's a better way of putting it. "Mistaking feelings for facts" is another way of putting what I was trying to say with my remarks on "judgment". "Judgment" is what makes one choose to emphasize (sometimes even to perceive) the facts one chooses to emphasize.

Along the way some people choose to couch their choice in a raiment they want to call "being rational".