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Comment by mhb | Hacker News Reader

But Dr. Scott Alexander So-and-So also says that Scott Alexander is his real-life first and last name. That sure is an odd choice of pseudonyms for someone who wishes to remain anonymous. The legendary whistleblower "Deep Throat" wasn't a guy named Deep Throat McInnis, and if he was, going by "Deep Throat" wouldn't exactly be a cloak of anonymity.

Slate Star CoDoxxed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23627301

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What a nasty little article. Reeks of petty malice. And from someone who claims he's interested in "being a good person".

> But Dr. Scott Alexander So-and-So also says that Scott Alexander is his real-life first and last name.

No he doesn't, he says it's his real-life first and middle name. It would be pretty hard to identify someone from a common first and middle name alone with no other identifying information. Read his post again: https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/06/22/nyt-is-threatening-my-...

You're right - that was a mistake in the quoted essay. Nonetheless, the essay's main points are that Scott Alexander's actions are not consistent with those of someone who values anonymity.

They may not be consistent with someone who prioritizes anonymity above all else, but they are perfectly consistent with someone who moderately values pseudonymity.

Which is all Scott claims in his new landing page, if I read it right.

Agreed -- the counter-theory for his motivations in the linked essay doesn't hold up to Occam's razor compared to this explanation. (Without knowing anything about the author of the linked essay, it felt like there was a bit of projection going on there...)

Yes, he didn't go to great lengths to cryptographically protect his identity. He's not Edward Snowden, he's just some guy who started writing some essays on a blog, and used a somewhat half-hearted pseudonym probably never imagining it would get popular enough for anyone to look into it further than possibly googling his pseudonym.

Many people have made the mistake that when they first come on to the Internet, they have to choose their level of anonymity right then, when they have the least amount of information to know whether or not they'll need it. Once you've built up a nym's reputation it's essentially too late to make it more anonymous. His actions are completely consistent with someone who didn't expect to become an internet sensation of a size and scope that he's worth a NYT article. Did you pick your first nym assuming that might happen? I bet not.

He says nothing about anonymity. He writes about pseudonymity.

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