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This is a blog on why we believe and do what we do, why we pretend otherwise, how we might do better, and what our descendants might do, if they don't all die.
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Today we welcome a fourth author at Overcoming Bias: Carl Shulman. The other authors have known Carl for many years, he’s posted here at OB before, and while we (ok, I) have often disagreed, he’s consistently thoughtful, clear, and interested in interesting topics. You can read more about Carl here, here, and here, but I suggest you mainly just listen to what he has to say.
Welcome Carl Shulman
Robin should be praised for demonstrating the virtue of generosity in adding Carl. Unlike Katja and Robert, he has done little to demonstrate effectiveness as a blogger, at least not by objective measures. His Google ranking (while based on less than a year) is 0. (By comparison, Katja and Robert reached 5, Less Wrong is at 6, and Overcoming Bias 7.) And this measure favors the highly networked, like Carl, a Fellow at SIAI,, as Katja and (I think) Robert once were.
On another measure, biased in other ways, Carl doesn't even rate an Alexa ranking, suggesting an exceedingly small readership.
What I've seen of Carl's comments is pedantic and hairsplitting more than original.
Carl's blog contains this disconcerting posting, titled "Moderation":
For the record, this is a personal blog and I may arbitrarily moderate comments at any time in the name of epistemic norms, civility, or capricious whim.
Well, for one thing, such notice really ought to be provided more visibly than stuck in a posting that commenters might not even see, that is, if one must insist on running one's blog comments in an arbitrary and capricious fashion. (Unsurprisingly, his blog hasn't gotten a single comment in about a year- of operation, as far as I can tell.)
The authoritarian style with which some libertarians comport themselves when they get just a modicum of status or power--like being a blog "owner"-- supports the role of authoratiarism as the hidden dynamic of libertarianism, as suggested by an article Dmitryl recently cited. (Bryan Caplan, who lays out the generously afforded rights of commenters to his blog is a notable exception.)