> I'm still furious they ever intended to do it, and held the sword of Damocles over his head for so many weeks.
I think the actual “Sword of Damocles” story does not illustrate what you wish it to. From Wikipedia:
“ According to the story, Damocles was pandering to his king, Dionysius, exclaiming that Dionysius was truly fortunate as a great man of power and authority, surrounded by magnificence. In response, Dionysius offered to switch places with Damocles for one day so that Damocles could taste that very fortune firsthand. Damocles quickly and eagerly accepted the king's proposal. Damocles sat on the king's throne, surrounded by every luxury, but Dionysius, who had made many enemies during his reign, arranged that a sword should hang above the throne, held at the pommel only by a single hair of a horse's tail to evoke the sense of what it is like to be king: Though having much fortune, always having to watch in fear and anxiety against dangers that might try to overtake him.”
My point was the irony. Damocles wanted to sit in the hot seat, until he found out just how hot it was.
Scott Alexander has been a semi-public figure (popular blog, shares pieces of personal information and parts of his name, his location, online) for a while.
Now Scott Alexander is in the hot seat (getting an NY Times article written about you).
So he hung his own sword of Damocles over his head. Certainly, as a psychiatrist, if anonymity is so important then I do wonder, unless he didn't understand the importance of it years ago, why he wasn't fully anonymous then?
IMHO there's a difference between Scott Alexander-level anonymity and Satoshi Nakamoto level anonymity.
Which raises a good question - is it in the public interest enough to, say, know the name of who created bitcoin, that, if the NY Times found out, it'd be appropriate for them to publish it?
I think the actual “Sword of Damocles” story does not illustrate what you wish it to. From Wikipedia:
“ According to the story, Damocles was pandering to his king, Dionysius, exclaiming that Dionysius was truly fortunate as a great man of power and authority, surrounded by magnificence. In response, Dionysius offered to switch places with Damocles for one day so that Damocles could taste that very fortune firsthand. Damocles quickly and eagerly accepted the king's proposal. Damocles sat on the king's throne, surrounded by every luxury, but Dionysius, who had made many enemies during his reign, arranged that a sword should hang above the throne, held at the pommel only by a single hair of a horse's tail to evoke the sense of what it is like to be king: Though having much fortune, always having to watch in fear and anxiety against dangers that might try to overtake him.”
The NY Times is equivalent to the King?