So I'm thinking to myself, around six years ago, "I can at least manage to publish timeless decision theory, right? That's got to be around the safest idea I have, it couldn't get any safer than that while still being at all interesting. I mean, yes, there's these possible ways you could let these ideas eat your brain but who could possibly be smart enough to understand TDT and still manage to fall for that?"

Lesson learned.

I spent a year or so diligently studying rationality as a SingInst Visiting Fellow followed by realizing that I was a few levels above nearly any other aspiring rationalist.

And this is what several levels above me looks like? I'm not omnipotent, yet, but I have a deed or two to my name at this point; for example, when I write Harry Potter fanfiction, it reliably ends up as the most popular HP fanfiction on the Internet. (Those of you who didn't get here following HPMOR can rule out selection effects at this point.) Several levels above me should make it noticeably easier to show your power in a third-party-noticeable fashion, and the fact that you can't do so should cause you to question yourself.

It's the opposite of the lesson I usually try to teach, but in this one case I'll say it: it's not the world that's mad, it's you.