• maol@awful.systemsEnglish
    6·
    16 days ago

    I will always remember Sam Bankman Fried saying it’s obvious that Shakespeare can’t be the greatest author ever because it’s unlikely. Just because something’s unlikely doesn’t mean it’s impossible! You need to independently evaluate the evidence!

    • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systemsEnglish
      2·
      16 days ago

      Also I feel like the logic he based that on was just dumb. Like, some writer out of the last several centuries is going to be the best for whatever given metric. We shouldn’t be surprised that any particular individual is the best any more than another. If anything the fact that people still talk about him after the centuries is probably the strongest argument in favor of his writing that you could make.

      But of course Sam’s real goal was to justify the weird rationalist talking point that reading is overrated because podcasts exist or something.