HPMoR is in my RSS collection, and it's finally getting close to wrapping up. One problem with it is that it at times it feels like very much like EY's mouthpiece.
Fair warning, I talk about this point a lot. There's a subreddit and I think it's the only non-sports reddit I check daily. I'm committed. I think, first of all, that it's valid to say the story is his mouthpiece, but not to use that as a criticism. His stated purpose in writing the story (and the one that allows him to use work time to write it) is spreading his ideas far and wide on the internet. If the medium didn't allow the story to be his platform, the story wouldn't exist. The man's a genius; HPMoR is his first full-length writing of any sort and it's already the most popular piece of fanfiction ever written in terms of reviews and favorites and word of mouth. So it worked. And thousands of people don't see that as detracting from the story, which is my second point. Even if you don't dig the extended sections where, say, Harry is attempting to teach Draco that the antagonists' concept of "blood superiority" is irrational by using entry-level genetics (and it's working, because in HPMoR all the primary characters are actually intelligent, but also not working because Draco is the equivalent of an 1830s plantation owner's son) -- even if you aren't into those bits, the common complaint from everyone who is is that in the last 30 chapters we've gotten nothing but plot. Yudkowsky's storyline eventually forced him to leave the mouthpiece at home to a large extent. And everyone's still reading. Because it's a damn good story even if you disagree with every single tenet of LessWrong rationalism, or don't want to hear the scientific method mentioned in the context of discovering why and how magic works in JK Rowling's universe. (But really, who doesn't? That stuff is far more interesting than the original series.) I'll cut myself off there because you almost certainly don't care about this as much as I do.One problem with it is that it at times it feels like very much like EY's mouthpiece.
I do care a little bit. I also used to frequent r/hpmor, but now I don't really have the time for it. And yeah, HPMoR is a clever way for him to spread his message. I think my criticism boils down to EY himself seeming a bit.. off. Based on a Google Hangout interview I saw he seems to be the kind of person who talks at people, not to them.
I interact with him on facebook and reddit a lot. Have read a lot of the Sequences, etc. Maybe I identify with him because of a similar background (I once read a small autobiography of his, written when he was quite young, that would definitely rub anyone the wrong way -- he's basically claiming that he was so much smarter than everyone else growing up, incl. his parents, that his childhood was irreparably fucked -- thing is, it's probably true) and I can to a lesser extent understand where he's coming from.^ Anyway, a lot of the hate for him stems from simple anti-intellectualism, some of it from anti-futurism, and some of it from, like you say, just a sort of feeling you get when talking to him. He's not arrogant exactly, but there isn't an ounce of false modesty. As a society, we've come to heavily weight our expectations of extraordinarily smart people toward humility and false modesty -- but in Yudkowsky's view, that's just a misrepresentation of the truth. ^my counterargument: if you're really that smart, you can read people like books and learn to get along with them. Not to do so is arrogance, laziness, or a sign of some slight mental imbalance.
Yeah, he means well and seems mostly honest but is probably hampered by some neuropsychiatrical disability. I think I traded a few words with him, but not many tbh. I had a bit of a difficult childhood too and have a hard time reading people, but I've stubbornly taught myself how to be better at it.