Ruairi wrote:Jesus the title of your thread scared the hell outta me for a second.

• Originally I didn't know if I was going to do something that would require being discreet about my philosophical views -- an extreme example of which would be running for office or having another position that's constantly in the public eye. I now think it's unlikely I'll be in such a position.
• In earlier days I was just developing my positions on these issues and didn't know if they would change a lot. (Indeed, my views have changed a lot over time.) Now I feel my thoughts are more stable, and I don't anticipate jettisoning them any time soon, so there's less risk for having them known.
• A lot of people knew the pen-name anyway, and I usually told people I knew because I'm not the kind of person who keeps things hidden.
• As Facebook discussions took off, I began talking more and more about these topics using my own profile, which made the additional user name less relevant.
• If I do more professional writing and advocacy in the future, things would get pretty confusing with the pen-name. I figured it made sense to clear the confusion earlier than later.
• Many people (e.g., from growing up, from school, from work) know and like me in other contexts. It's great if this can spill over into people finding out what I think about reducing suffering in the universe. In order to make that easier, I should write using my own name (so that it shows up in searches, etc.).

Daniel Dorado wrote:It's not good for utility.

peterhurford wrote:I love the idea of a utilitarian forum, where we can talk like this.