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Steelmanning The Case For Consultants, Affirmative Action, and Alcohol

humaninvariant.substack.com · 1,594 words · saved by 1 readers

True intellectual rigor demands we seek out the strongest possible counterarguments, even when they challenge beliefs that feel obviously correct. Laying out the strongest arguments for the opposing side ensures that we understand the other side from first-principles. If you can't articulate the strongest possible case against your own beliefs, you don't understand the topic well enough to have strong beliefs about it, and are subject to the public intellectuals and other cult-like individuals who present these ideas. In this piece, I steelman the case for consultants, affirmative action, and alcohol consumption. Note that this is not what I necessarily believe, but what I believe are the strongest arguments in favor of each. Zeitgeist belief: Consultants don’t do real work. Consultants may work nominally long hours but do not add any significant value to firms, billing high rates for meaningless PowerPoints. Steelmanned counterarguments: Consultants enable executives to take unpopular

Three ideas have gained remarkable momentum, even becoming consensus in certain circles: Consultants don’t do real work. Affirmative action puts diversity over merit and blocks the most talented candidates. Alcohol is bad for you and you should never drink. True intellectual rigor demands we seek out the strongest possible counterarguments, even when they challenge beliefs that feel obviously correct. Laying out the strongest arguments for the opposing side ensures that we understand the other side from first-principles. If you can't articulate the strongest possible case against your…

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