I upvoted this, but I'm torn about this.

In your recent posts you've been slowly, carefully, thoroughly deconstructing one person. Part of me wants to break into applause at the techniques used, and learn from them, because in my whole life of manipulation I've never mounted an attack of such scale. (The paragraph saying "something has gone very wrong" was absolutely epic, to the point of evoking musical cues somewhere at the edge of my hearing. Just like the "greatly misguided" bit in your previous post. Bravo!) But another part of me feels horror and disgust because after traumatic events in my own life I'd resolved to never do this thing again.

It comes down to this: I enjoy LW for now. If Eliezer insists on creating a sealed reality around himself, what's that to me? You don't have to slay every dragon you see. Saving one person from megalomania (real or imagined) is way less important than your own research. Imagine the worst possible world: Eliezer turns into a kook. What would that change, in the grand scheme of things or in your personal life? Are there not enough kooks in AI already?

And lastly, a note about saving people. I think many of us here have had the unpleasant experience (to put it mildly) of trying to save someone from suicide. Looking back at such episodes in my own life, I'm sure that everyone involved would've been better off if I'd just hit "ignore" at the first sign of trouble. Cut and run: in serious cases it always comes to that, no exceptions. People are very stubborn, both consciously and subconsciously - they stay on their track. They will waste their life (or spend it wisely, it's a matter of perspective), but if you join the tug-of-war, you'll waste a big chunk of yours as well.

How's that for other-optimizing?