EY is not a baby, and was not a baby in the time period under discussion. He is in his mid thirties today.
I have zero interest in gaining status in the LW/rationalist community. I already won the status tournament I care about. I have no interest in "crabbing" for that reason. I have no interest in being a "guru" to anyone. I am not EY's competitor, I am involved in a different game.
Whether me being free of the confounding influence of status in this context makes me a more reliable narrator I will let you decide.
What I am very interested in is decomposing cult behavior into constituent pieces to try to understand why it happens. This is what makes LW/rationalists so fascinating to me -- not quite a cult in the standard Scientology sense, but there is definitely something there.
Mid thirties in 2015 means about twenty in 2001 (the date of most of the linked archives), right? That's halfway to baby from where I am now. Some of my cringeworthy diaries were written in my mid twenties.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
Notes for future OT posters:
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3. Open Threads should be posted in Discussion, and not Main.
4. Open Threads should start on Monday, and end on Sunday.