taelor comments on Mandatory Secret Identities - Less Wrong
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I think that accademia is also subject to this mode of failure. As an exercise, try to think of great literary figures who were also professors of literature at major universities. Off the top of my head, I can think of exactly one: Vladimir Nabokov, and he was notably contemptuous of his colleagues. Can anyone else think up anymore?
Unsurprisingly, Paul Graham has some interesting thoughts on the subject (incidentally, I seem to be developing a reputation on another forum that I post on as the "obligatory Paul Graham link guy"):
In this case, what we should really worry about is developing good tests to distinguish good rationalists from the phonies beyond just "runs a rationality dojo". Obviously, being able to apply the principles of instrumental rationality inorder to succeed at a field unrelated to rationality is one such test, but is it the only one? I think the issue warrants further study.