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shokwave comments on Open Thread, December 16-31, 2012 - Less Wrong
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As drethelin pointed out, if my online persona would make my real life look better, then my real life would make my online persona look worse.
It's not zero sum.
It's not possible to find the things that you say in meatspace via google. Let's say someone you know in real life doesn't know that you are the cool rationalists that you project on LessWrong. That person is like you. He is also on LessWrong. He also uses a nickname. You both know each other but you don't look like cool rationalists to each other.
If one of you starts to be identifiable then the other can say: "Hey, let's meet up to have some cool conversation about rationality". That real life relationship can then also improve your online relationship. Your new real life rational friend is now likely to give your posts on LessWrong more attention. Both commenting on them and voting. Your online life also gets improved. There's synergy.
Being willing to take real life responsibility for the actions of your online persona can increase the amount of trust that your online persona gets.
Sure, it isn't. But I've been using the moniker shokwave for nearly ten years now, so there's some cost to changing. I will, however, examine those costs more closely because you make a convincing argument.
Once thing I forgot:
If you don't think you are seen as a cool person in real life, what's the reason? Are you hiding yourself to avoid rejection from the people around you? Do you think that you can only express yourself online? Is there something that you could change in meatspace to communicate your personality more effectively?
If so, it would be worthwhile to investigate the costs of such a behavior change.
Many geeks spent way to much energy on hiding their personality.
Oh, I'm pretty cool in real life too! It's not at all that I can only express myself online; it's precisely the opposite, that I can choose to not express myself online. This lets me craft my responses much more - it's like being given five minutes to come up with each line in a conversation.