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Jan 18, 2023Liked by vincent huang

i really like this post! i think it gave me some novel things to think about wrt sellout discourse for the first time in a while, namely that the solution lies not in motivation(al speeches) but in real experiences.

i’m also interested in the line of thought “unfair that these organizations and classes… don’t exist in most other fields” — i think at some point i’d want to do some sort of meta analysis of what characterizes these programs and how to create/enable them

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i think at some point i’d want to do some sort of meta analysis of what characterizes these programs and how to create/enable them » lol yeah i was also thinking about this! i think cost/funding and access to existing communities are pretty important - nano has lots of mit $ and there are lots of nano-adjacent profs + grad students willing to help; 0xparc has low costs because research is done on computers and they also did a good job of tapping into existing crypto + math communities. i'm sure there are lots of other relevant factors though, and i'm not sure how to create/enable these orgs myself

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Thanks for your thoughts. It was terribly wonderful and bittersweet, and it makes me happy to see such kindness and thoughtfulness.

I used to avoid using the term "unfair" in my speech and writing like the plague. I found that it could immediately open the counterargument, "well this is life and nothing is fair," because I'd hear it all the time as a kid from my old brother when I'd cry out about how something was unfair and I would just feel this bubble of frustration; there was no good response and I didn't know how else to describe whatever injustice was in that moment.

Anyhow, I only mention that because the last portion of the writing, the usage of the term "unfair" exuded such genuineness in your frustration and just wanted to appreciate that.

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this is wonderful. I like the arc from conversation -> interpretation of conversation -> wider context on how hacklodge changed your perspective -> general thoughts on selloutism as it's played out around you

Also strongly agreed on the solution being real experiences with real alternatives, that's really well-put

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