There's clearly some sort of issue of self-worth being tied to status. I just don't know how large the effect size is, and in what contexts I should and shouldn't expect it to show up.

I think there is large variation here and it's difficult to give generic advice. I would probably expect it to show up everywhere -- if it doesn't you can be pleasantly surprised...

I was intentionally departing from these norms, in an attempt to support Less Wrong's stated purpose as A community blog devoted to refining the art of rationality.

So, reality check: how well do you think it worked?

I do adhere to standards of polite discourse except to the extent that I express my views when I think that they're important.

And another reality check: looking at actual results, do you think that it was helpful to getting your point across?

You seem to think that I'm coming across as arrogant because I'm egotistical.

No, I just remember you writing "I'm not going to hide who I am just so that people don't have to feel uncomfortable about someone being more sophisticated and empathetic than they are."

Just saying "you can make yourselves ~10x more productive" pattern matches very heavily with a crackpot.

Well, not that heavily. In specific areas -- math and programming come to mind -- claims of 10x more productivity are reasonable because we know it's possible to have that large a difference in productivity between adequate people. We know it's possible because we can observe it in real life. Whether you can teach that is another question, though.

On the other hand...

to aggregate the common wisdom of great historical figures

...this matches crackpottery nearly perfectly.

I'm at something of a loss as to how to proceed.

I'm not sure what is the precise problem that you are facing. If your wisdom can be conveyed in a text, well, write the text, put it on teh interwebs, and hope for the best. Someone will try it and if it works the method will spread.

On the other hand, if you only can transfer this wisdom in person, ancient master/sensei/sifu-style, start looking for disciples. Finding worthy disciples is a traditional challenge for the masters :-)