18 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
18 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
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The Maximum Vindictiveness Strategy
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I've recently been thinking about what the appropriate response to someone fucking with you should be.
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<p><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Gadsden_flag_with_apostrophe.svg" alt="Gadsden flag with apostrophe" class="img-medium-center" /></p>
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On the one hand, you have the "roll over and submit" strategy, favored by, for instance, Scott Aaronson, being [apologetic](https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=2119) even after being trod over, or by Aaron Schwartz [killing himself](https://wikiless.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz?lang=en). On the other extreme, you have the "maximum vindictiveness strategy", implemented by, for instance, Peter Thiel, who—acting within the bounds of legality—utterly destroyed [Gawker](https://wikiless.org/wiki/Gawker?lang=en).
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In the middle you'd have Scott Alexander, which didn't react quite so passively to Cade Metz [threatening to dox him](https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/statement-on-new-york-times-article). Scott Alexander wrote about his plight, deleted his blog, and drove some proportion of the rationalist/EA spheres to unsubscribe from the NYT, but stopped far from the maximum legally allowed amount of vindictiveness. For instance, he could have created a cademetzisanasshole.com page, or publicly warned people from taking interviews with him, etc.
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One consideration here is that:
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- Implementing the maximum vindictiveness strategy could dissuade malicious actors from targetting you
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- But it has a cost once you are targetted: Peter Thiel could just hire some really badass lawyers, but for me to have a close to comparable effect, I'd have to spend 5-10% of my hours awake implementing revenge.
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Ultimately, I think that I am the sort of person that would take the maximum vindictiveness. In particular, because of its cost after-the-fact, maximum vindictiveness is probably an under-provided public good.
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