In Paul Fussell’s book on class (I think), he says that people are really worried about differentiating themselves from the class immediately below them, but largely ignorant of the customs and sometimes even existence of the classes above them. When I found SSC, and then The Motte, and stuff like TLP, I was astonished to find a tier of the internet I had had no idea even existed. The quality of discourse here is . . . usually . . . of the kind that “high brow” (by internet standards) websites THINK they are having, but when you see the best stuff here you realize that those clowns are just flattering themselves. My question is, who is rightly saying the same thing about us? Of what intellectual internet class am I ignorant now? Or does onlineness impose some kind of ceiling on things, and the real galaxy brains are at the equivalent of Davos somewhere?
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The next tier of discourse is gated off, because it requires a very high level depth in a field to engage in that of discourse.
After-work research-lab dinners with a little bit of alcohol and out of earshot of your PI
long-form podcasts (think some of the stuff Razib/Huberman do...less so Rogan/Lex)
(pre-covid) certain meetups in areas of very-very high academic + economic activity (Basically Berkeley, Boston & Palo Alto)
(post-covid) very closed off private discord groups
If your question is, where do where the smart kids of smart millionaires hang out, then the unfortunate answer is in exclusive frats of ivy league universities. The quality of discourse is low, but damn does a shit ton of money flow through the naïve hands of these 20yr old brats.
Nope. I attend a lot of them and none of them come close to a good discussion on TM.
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I beg to differ I think the motte can be disrupted, I intend to write a blog about it.
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