The Ground Rules

All posts on this site follow The Ground Rules.

• I say what I believe to be true, not what is true. That gap may come from limits in my understanding or information that wasn’t available when I wrote it. Expect eventual inaccuracies.

• One caveat: I’ll sometimes discuss scenarios I consider unlikely because I think others underestimate their likelihood or significance (e.g. I will talk about X if I think $P_{\text{society}}(X) \ll P_{\text{me}}(X)$ even if $P_{\text{me}}(X)$ is low; one such example is “S-risks”). I expect to explicitly flag statements which fall under this category as such. Truth as perceived today (especially about uncertain / forward looking statements) is often on a spectrum and deserves to be treated fully as such, not binary.

• I don’t exhaustively research my topics. Expertise has a long tail and investing my time in perfection in each domain is usually not desirable to me. Nonetheless, I write with careful reflection, expect a middle ground.

• All of my takes are biased. I can only write from my perspective, which is (largely) a highly privileged upbringing. My audience is often assumed to be at least somewhat technical and medium-to-high earning with the agency to influence their own life and often those around them. When I say “do X”, that statement may assume resources you don’t have. I hope that doesn’t significantly detract from your enjoyment of reading.

• I expect to make unpopular statements (what good is expression if saying what others already know). The beliefs I hold are expected to change over time and I may be wrong.

  

• I will likely often repeat what is already in the public discourse. I consume a lot of content and some of it sticks with me. I try to cite my inspiration / source when I remember, but if I don’t please reach out to me and I will gladly do so.

• I’m just a guy on the internet who sometimes has opinions, it’s not that deep.

• I want to be disagreed with (I am truth-seeking and comfortable with being wrong). If you think I make a mistake, am looking at the wrong problem/solution, or have any other thoughts I strongly encourage you to get in touch. I invoke Crocker’s Rules (you don’t need to soften criticism for my sake) and the Chatham House Rule (I may share what you tell me, but won’t identify you or your affiliation).

• Nit: It is grammatically correct to embed punctuation within quotes (e.g. “quote,” blah blah). I never liked this convention and will intentionally avoid this pattern when I remember to.

• I likely overthought when writing the above but now you know a bit more about my approach to things.