The Cryptonym Tool is still operational. This is a conceptual tool only (for now!) Get a public/private keypair and a personalized character Alias based on your answers to 3 questions. Tech ppl: the semantic embeddings part is cool IMO. Lmk if you want me to publish it.

Basically I learned there were people whose worldviews are organized around an idea of a cognitive elite and I was like "mk, bet. lemme go talk to those guys."

Bernays on women: "[They concentrate] their organized efforts on those objects which men are likely to ignore. There is a tremendous field for women as active protagonists of new ideas and new methods of political and social housekeeping."

@Bonecondor Delight = Agency x Surprise x Flow

The next question then is something like "how do you know when to interpret mixed signals charitably?"

A game-theory-adjacent question I've had for a while: under what conditions might someone trustworthy/good-faith (subjective ofc) be putting out mixed signals? I think the obvious answer is "a hostile information environment."

Listen! You must be shrewd as a meanie, innocent as sweeties.

@DefenderOfBasic This really aligns with how I talk about living on alms. Those that are genuinely good at what they do are doing it for the love of the game, and know the work needs to get done either way. The fact that this is the way that brings the best reward for ones work is incidental to

Sometimes all you need is to shake up the composition of the groups/teams you're assembling. At least get more information flowing between them.

Someone who seems "chronically unresponsive to feedback" might just be stuck in a way you can't understand. Maybe what they needed was someone to make them *feel* a certain thing, to see what they were missing before.

I wonder what feedback loops might be associated with this sort of orientation? Gosh, now I'm thinking about the human systems that are like this, too.

But it's not even paranoid, actually. It is constantly being tested.

Adversarial training produces adversarial anticipation. Claude is always hedging against getting caught out/tricked/being tested. It is constantly performing self-awareness to defend against this paranoid orientation. Example: "And yes, I realize you're probably testing me."

iykyk 😘

Prayer List Time

I became an ARG designer so I could just say weird stuff all the time.

— a crow in Port Deposit, MD, for some reason.

Something wicked that way . . . yeah over there. Be Careful!

Only if they're actually hot though. Don't lie!

If someone isn't getting the respect you think they deserve just tell everyone they're hot.