I’ve read LessWrong on and off since 2014. Read SSC and ACX semi-regularly. Scott’s a crank. He writes convincingly, he understands charisma and style, but he just can’t hold his own in an intellectual exchange.

Just last week he and Tyler Cowen of Marginial Revolution got into a dispute over USAID and DOGE and the degree to which Scott fails over and over again to read otherwise simple sentences is staggering.

> He writes convincingly, he understands charisma and style, but he just can’t hold his own in an intellectual exchange.

Yes, it's convincing because he actually cares to craft a reasoning that you can follow for yourself and definitely not charisma and style

This is just a biased retelling of what happened. Scott responded to Cowen's response. So it's just like... your opinion, man.

I encourage anyone to just go read the exchange and decide for themselves.