So grateful to Ben, Aella, and Ronny for hosting and for all the people with whom I had lively debates with this past Saturday! Like Matt it was my first in person rat event, and I really enjoyed meeting everyone and seeing how open everyone is to friendly debate and probing questions.

I really hope these meetups continue- happy to help & support to help make it possible.

Thanks again everyone, cheers to many fun connections to come in 2025!

Even things like biological limits which turned out to be mental (the idea a 4 minute mile was impossible, for instance). 

I wonder if we just told people the problem was solved, and ask them to find the solution, would the mere fact of confidence there is a solution lead to greater chances of finding a solution? I remember the story of the mathematician to which this exact thing happened (he accidentally was assigned a famous unsolved problem as homework, and solved it). 

Someone feel free to correct if that was a myth or a real incident.

Reminds me of how @visakanv (on X) said he's very happy with a day's work if he got in 3-4 hours of good solid work. And how over the timescale of years, it compounds much more than anyone would believe. 

Definitely gives me optimism, and appreciate the two definitions of "impossible" you've outlined too.

Fascinating post, like a version of prions on an orthogonal axis, but with way more possibility to expand. 

Wonder if other fields have a version of this, where by inverting or adjusting a basic principle you unlock a whole field as rich and diverse as the original. Perhaps imaginary numbers are analogous?

I'd love to, would you be open to being a "beta reader" for my post? Appreciate the encouragement!

Loved reading this! Suspected the premise based on title, but nevertheless great to see the premise fleshed out in a short story. And the pov “plot twist” was really fun, thanks for the thought experiment!

Comments have great nuance i.e. "systems/processes greatly expand word count". 

But I'd say assuming lack of system & a randomly selected audience, the author's point stands. After all, in media there's a reason they value "sound bites" so much- and those are more like 5 syllables. 

Think, "grab em by the ****" and "nasty woman" from the 2016 election.

Would love to be corrected though!

Makes me think of the concept of "reality distortion fields" as it applies to overconfidence in leaders (I read about this applied to Steve Jobs specifically- his ability to get people to also believe in & work towards the impossible). 

Does anyone have the link to what I'm referring to? But overall, I do believe charisma has a lot to do with letting go of the need to have an accurate "map" of yourself and your strengths/shortcomings. 

Excellent summary! Would be interested in a list of corollaries to this, i.e.:

a) If "condemned" X is necessary for "prestigious" Y, people with Y will mislead and lie to the public about how they achieved Y, despite wanting others to attain success at Y too. Furthermore, the narrative of their path to achieving Y without anything to do with X will be extremely uniform & coordinated despite any huge differences amongst people with Y. For example, some Y people have X, some don't, some hope for others to attain Y, some don't- but the "public narrative" all with Y tell will still end up extremely uniform.

This corollary was extremely unintuitive to me- outlined my experience in a "condemned X" which was often needed for "prestigious Y" if anyone is curious of how the corollary plays out in practice (in my direct comment to this post).

Jimmy phrased it really well- the "lizardmen" don't want to let anyone know precisely because they won't be perceived by you as rational/moral humans as you would've without knowing, but rather "lizardmen". 

"how one might ever become justifiably confident a particular piece of dark matter really doesn't exist or is as rare as you'd suspect it is" - as someone in a "lizardman" community myself (commented regarding my own experience), probably one of the only ways to know for sure is to join as a lizardman. Any other way, you'll be inundated with misinformation, speculation, and even red herrings directed at distorting the "map" as much as possible for anyone trying to understand lizardmen. 

For my part, after joining the lizardman community, I did realize the prevalance was about 100x what I'd previously assumed, just as OP predicted. 

As for trading action for knowledge, I personally wouldn't share my "membership" with anyone in my close social circle unless they gave me something equally taboo. I wouldn't believe anyone's commitment to not be upset, because often disgust or horror is a gut reaction and uncontrollable. Never mind trusting others to keep any secret without a counterweight.