site banner
No_one  1mo ago (x.com)   Edited 29d ago   1449 thread views

US Scientists, Technologists, Academics: The Trump transition team seeks highly qualified individuals for government roles.

x.com

Steve Hsu, an older theoretical physicist (Caltech '86), former university physics administrator and entrepreneur notable for getting cancelled from a VP position at Michigan State for tolerating the wrong people and ideas, being an advisor to BGI, the world's leading genetic sequencing lab and also leading an effort to create a number of genomic predictors for various conditions.

In short, he's big both literally and metaphorically, pretty competent if I go by his predictions over the years- (he has had a pretty good blog for at least 15 yrs), and he's soliciting CVs for an effort to restore the reputation and function of US government scientific institutes and state universities.

The Trump transition team seeks highly qualified individuals for government roles. One of the main goals will be to restore competitiveness and meritocratic values to institutions like NIH, NSF, DOE, DOD, NIST, Dept. of Education, etc.

Through these institutions, the new administration intends to enforce these values on our university system.

10
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

So is he part of said 'transition team' or does he just have the ear of someone on it?

Hasn't said anything publicly, but I don't think he's ever done anything lightly, at least on twitter. He posts at times, sometimes discusses tech or politics but he's never led anyone on or was silly.

I think it's a serious offer.

You're going to need to provide more than just a Twitter link to post a new thread.

As a regular Motte reader and occasional poster, I think your standards for posts are too overbearing. The Motte's biggest problem is the lack of content, and the reason for the lack of content is that the mod team is strangling it. The Motte needs more lower-quality posts, not fewer higher-quality posts.

You're not going to run out of space.

We're not worried about running out of space. We're worried about the place becoming nothing but daily rage-posting and low effort outgroup-bashing. If all we wanted to do was increase the volume and frequency of posts, we'd remove all rules and just let people post whatever they want. That would probably make this place a lot livelier, but not better.

Demanding more effort is not the same thing as demanding less rage. This post is neither rage-posting nor outgroup-bashing, but you're giving it a mod warning for not "providing more than a Twitter link." What's wrong with a Twitter link? Why should you require more effort from top-level posts? Have you considered the possibility that this is actually an appropriate amount of effort relative to the subject matter? Have you considered the possibility that adding more effort to this Twitter link might not actually increase the quality of the post, because more effort is not called for in this particular situation?

This post is neither rage-posting nor outgroup-bashing, but you're giving it a mod warning for not "providing more than a Twitter link."

That's because we have a rule against bare links. We've had this discussion many times and you are unlikely to add anything new to it.

Why should you require more effort from top-level posts

It''s a service to me, the reader. And I am thankful for it. Twitter link requires me to click through to see what's going on and then guess why the author thinks it's interesting. Minimal effort post to describe what it's about and why it's interesting does this work for me, and I am grateful for it.

The link is self-explanatory.

A pretty impressive guy who has been mentioned here and who got cancelled for saying his mind is apparently tasked with recruiting people to reform key institutions.

What more should one post?

I guess you could just cram it into the CW thread, but

a) it's not even really worth debating.

b) it's fairly important information. Wouldn't everyone here want better Us institutions ?

No bare links.

Please bring back the Bare Links Repository.

Been discussed. No.

If I add in context are you going to make it visible ?

Thanks for adding context. It would probably be better without the somewhat blatant culture war bits.

I'm a little ambivalent as to the extent to which this arguably constitutes "recruiting for a cause," but I will, tentatively, allow it.

Rewrote it a little. I assume 'recruiting for a cause' is bad if you're trying to create a bloc on this site to influence this, no? This is just placing a somewhat relevant advert that points off site and isn't going to create a bloc here.

The “recruiting” rule is some combination of that plus the 4chan “not your personal army” thing.

I think your edits look good. Thanks!

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats