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I can't believe you would write such a dumb comment. Total trash. Next time think for two seconds before pressing the "post reply" button.

More seriously, I really hate people attacking me online. It makes me miserable. And their attacks tend to be ... false. Like if someone accuses me of being greedy, or writing something because of some specific sinister agenda, or something, I usually know why I wrote things and they're just wrong.

And this blog is read by ~50,000 people. If I say something mean about some normal person without a huge audience, this may be one of the worst things that ever happen to them, in the same way that the NYT saying mean things about me was one of the worst things that ever happened to me.

And all of these people are effective altruists trying to make the world a better place, who are additionally writing their honest criticisms of EA to make it better. I hate that "this person writes a well-intentioned article intended to improve the world" ---> "they get insulted and used as an example of badness on a blog read by 50,000 people and they're forever known as the person who got this wrong". I hate that I have to write posts like this at all. But readers love criticism, and some points can't be made without it. I think it's an okay part of a broader media ecosystem but I hate doing it and I stand by my apologies.

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Sorry Scott, do you mean my comment or the one above? In emilio's defence I think I understand what s/he means, and wasn't trying to be mean... I agree with you that meanness is just, well... mean-spirited, and we should always try to be civil, especially online where the mean level of meanness may be even higher than in the mean streets of NYC or London, let alone the leafy avenues of Silicon Valley...

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I am quite certain that Scott's first paragraph was purely ironic, and *not* an attack or even criticism.

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You Americans with your *irony* "~}

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Have you and your people not yet imported enough of that yet from us? :)

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Sorry, I was responding to Emilio.

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