Here we evidently have another case study in misunderstanding. I'm guessing the person who downvoted the parent thought that I was somehow agreeing with the grandparent; in point of fact, however, just the opposite is true. The parent is actually a rebuke of the grandparent that simultaneously incorporates additional praise for Eliezer. It says, in effect, "the very fact that Eliezer garners this kind of tribute should tell you that maybe his lack of formal education does not have the significance it normally would; in fact, since a lack of formal education is generally a major disadvantage in earning status, the fact that Eliezer has apparently earned high status in this highly educated community despite not having any education himself should tell you just how awesome he must be."
The downvoter should have known this was the intended meaning because:
(1) It's the charitable assumption, which makes no less sense in the context than the assumption the downvoter made.
(2) The comment was written by me, and it should be clear from my commenting history that my view of this post and Eliezer is much closer to the many upvoters of this post and participants in the joke than to the dissenters and disapprovers, let alone the anti-Yudkowsky trolls.
Dude. I was the one who downvoted you, and here's why: 1) You replied to a troll 2) It was a very old troll 3) You did not say anything new or interesting 4) I think "Yay EY" is the kind of thing we want to stay away from, and anyway I'm a contrarian so I reflexively dislike it 5) I don't like that we even have a list of mostly-unfunny Chuck Norris jokes about EY, and I don't like seeing it pop up in recent comments
It was just one downvote. Everyone gets 'em; I'll probably get several here. No need to go into your "This demonstrates my superior rationality!" failure mode over it.
If you know more Eliezer Yudkowsky facts, post them in the comments.