A possibly incomplete list of novel stuff that Eliezer did (apart from popularizing his method of thinking, which I also like):
1) Locating the problem of friendly AI and pointing out the difficult parts.
2) Coming up with the basic idea of TDT (it was valuable to me even unformalized).
3) The AI-box experiments.
4) Inventing interesting testcases for decision-making, like torture vs. dust specks and Pascal's mugging.
While most of that list seems accurate, one should note that torture v. dust specks is a variant of a standard issue with utilitarianism that would be discussed in a lot of intro level philosophy classes.
Basically this: "Eliezer Yudkowsky writes and pretends he's an AI researcher but probably hasn't written so much as an Eliza bot."
While the Eliezer S. Yudkowsky site has lots of divulgation articles and his work on rationality is of indisputable value, I find myself at a loss when I want to respond to this. Which frustrates me very much.
So, to avoid this sort of situation in the future, I have to ask: What did the man, Eliezer S. Yudkowsky, actually accomplish in his own field?
Please don't downvote the hell out of me, I'm just trying to create a future reference for this sort of annoyance.