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Update on My Situation

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Re: Update on My Situation

#4

Post by thatguy0900 »

zepto wrote: post #3

So the New York Times cost him his job?

I'm torn on this. On the one hand, there's really no real reason for NYT to have refused to not publish his name, and also refuse to drop the story when he made clear how uncomfortable he was with being doxxed, a reasonable thing for his profession. On the other hand, his response was so extreme and scorched earthy I find it difficult to blame the outcome on the New York Times. I guess I just have to take him at his word of how badly it will affect his patients though.

Re: Update on My Situation

#5

Post by bearbin »

zepto wrote: post #3

So the New York Times cost him his job?

Yes and no. The recent issue with the NYT is certainly the immediate trigger of Scott Alexander's decision to change jobs; but it seems to me at least that this course of action was inevitable (once the blog became popular).

If (you feel that) your job is incompatible with a personal association to a popular 'rationalist' blog, and you write a rationalist blog under your own partial name, and it then becomes popular - well you will have to take that decision at some point - resign, or shut down the blog.

Scott has put off that decision as long as he could, and the NYT journalist's behaviour certainly forced him in one direction; but fundimentally this controversy is of his own creation.

Evidently he has taken the logical decision that the blog matters more to him (or there are more opportunities as the writer of a popular blog) than his old job and he's actioned this; I don't think it's fair to characterise this as the New York Times 'costing him his job'.

Re: Update on My Situation

#6

Post by brundolf »

> And now that I’ve publicly admitted privacy is important to me – something I tried to avoid coming on too strong about before, for exactly this reason – some people have taken it upon themselves to post my real name all over Twitter in order to harass and threaten me.

Has anybody applied the Dark Forest metaphor to internet publicity? It's fascinating (horrifying) how simply catching the attention of too big a piece of the internet can start wreaking havoc on different parts of your life. You don't even have to have done anything controversial. Attention itself appears to be caustic, at the extreme.

Re: Update on My Situation

#8

Post by sillysaurusx »

At this point I think maintaining anonymity is a losing battle. So I am gradually reworking my life to be compatible with the sort of publicity that circumstances seem to be forcing on me. I had a talk with my employer and we came to a mutual agreement that I would gradually transition away from working there.

Wait, what? Why?

What'd he write that's so incompatible with employment as a psychiatrist?

I don't get it. Why is it a risk for any employer anywhere to keep him on payroll? What's the worst possible outcome for the employer?

This post is putting on a tough front, but I'd be terrified if I were him. Imagine being forced to start your own business or go bankrupt.

Re: Update on My Situation

#9

Post by person_of_color »

brundolf wrote: post #6

> And now that I’ve publicly admitted privacy is important to me – something I tried to avoid coming on too strong about before, for exactly this reason – some people have taken it upon themselves to post my real name all over Twitter in order to harass and threaten me. Has anybody applied the Dark Forest metaphor to internet publicity? It's fascinating (horrifying) how simply catching the attention of too big a piec…

More people that know about you, more likely you are to come across a psycho that will tear you down.
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