When you prodded further, you got a good response, so while I think you didn't come out badly in that exchange at all, I am surprised that you are citing it as evidence of lukeprog understanding poorly.
I disagree. The final response was just as unhelpful; it's just that I didn't bother pushing the point. Luke tried to imply that the research he cited showed how to "dress fashionably based on magazines" yet not be consumerist, which is completely false.
I have little problem with bluntly telling people that they suck, and by extension don't mind less offending forthright communication, but I am leery of discussing people's work by evaluating how people's work compares to the popular perception of their work.
Well, there is a tendency among forums for people to automatically vote up anything that looks well researched, so it's important to know when that facade isn't holding up. And considering the number of times Luke gets corrected on his use of a source or otherwise crumples on any follow-up question, I'm worried this is one of those cases, and so I can't avoid implicating people for hasty upvoting.
But again, some of his more recent work looks to be more careful.
Singularity Institute desperately needs someone who is not me who can write cognitive-science-based material. Someone smart, energetic, able to speak to popular audiences, and with an excellent command of the science. If you’ve been reading Less Wrong for the last few months, you probably just thought the same thing I did: “SIAI should hire Lukeprog!” To support Luke Muelhauser becoming a full-time Singularity Institute employee, please donate and mention Luke (e.g. “Yay for Luke!”) in the check memo or the comment field of your donation - or if you donate by a method that doesn’t allow you to leave a comment, tell Louie Helm (louie@intelligence.org) your donation was to help fund Luke.
Note that the Summer Challenge that doubles all donations will run until August 31st. (We're currently at $31,000 of $125,000.)
During his stint as a Singularity Institute Visiting Fellow, Luke has already:
As a full-time Singularity Institute employee, Luke could:
If you’d like to help us fund Luke Muehlhauser to do all that and probably more, please donate now and include the word “Luke” in the comment field. And if you donate before August 31st, your donation will be doubled as part of the 2011 Summer Singularity Challenge.