Since Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is apparently still a thing, I figured I’d spend a few minutes before fediverse monster-movie night to collect relevant links:
- Archive of su3su2u1 review, via here (among other things an easy intro to how the “science” in HPMoR is bunk)
- Spacebattles.com forum thread: The Wizard of Woah and Irrational Methods of Irrationality
- HPRick and Morty
- “If you think you can point to an unnecessary sentence within [HPMoR], go ahead and try.”
- Sneering at Yudkowsky’s advice about writing “awesome” characters
- Sneering at Yudkowsky’s retrospective interview (August 2025)
- Sneering at Yudkowsky’s presence on a TV Tropes fork
And this from our own bitofhope:
Tired of people misrepresenting HPMOR as a Harry Potter fanfic where Harry uses science to study magic.
Anyone who has actually read the fic knows it’s a Death Note/Waiting for Godot/Spaceballs crossover fic about aristocrat failchildren bringing glowstick swords into an airsoft match. There are zero superfluous sentences. Every sentence a painting, especially when Glup of the Most Noble and Ancient Judean People’s Front of Shitto casts Compelled Duel on Backgroundella O. C. Technicallynot of the Superlatively Posh and Antiquarian Judean Popular Front of Whatsherface.
In the words of Anton Chekhov: if you establish in the first act that you must never burn anything you have transfigured, you must have a character transform something into a rocket in the third act and then fire that rocket without any harm done. This will prove you’re a better writer than Chekhov.
Final exam question: You are facing the most reddit serial killer of all time and his dumbass henchmen. Armed with only your wits and a spell that can transform anything into anything else, devise an escape. For extra credit, invoke one or more of the following science fiction plot devices: nuclear fusion, carbon nanotubes/fullerenes, wormholes/warp drives, neutronium, wave/particle duality, brown notes, grey goo, the anthropic principle, quantum tunneling, Maxwell’s demon.
HPMOR: the only novel that has been fully read by fewer people than mistakenly believe to have fully read it.
And a question dug up from one of those old threads: OK, so, Yud poured a lot of himself into writing HPMoR. It took time, he obviously believed he was doing something important — and he was writing autobiography, in big ways and small. This leads me to wonder: Has he said anything about Rowling, you know, turning out to be a garbage human?
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“I put my soul into the Pioneer Probe, Harry. I’m Pioneer Quirrell!”
OK, that almost makes it all worth it… HP, MOR, and Rick & Morty all three
This leads me to wonder: Has he said anything about Rowling, you know, turning out to be a garbage human?
I couldn’t find anything, though I did find this thread where he ponders if the problem with police is that they just have too much gosh darn testosterone while awkwardly trying not to take a side:
People, I said “under 100 ng/dL of testosterone” with intent to thereby short-circuit trans issues because that is the part I care about. The conjecture (though I’d consider it halfway busted at this point) was meant to exclude, eg, a trans AFAB taking testosterone.
“A trans AFAB”. Lovely.
Don’t worry though, nothing quite says “transphobes not welcome” like this:
And to be explicit, we are happy to host economically literate people in favor of market solutions who politely accede to pronoun requests.
Well OK maybe they are welcome, but at least they’ll begrudgingly use the right pronouns while they gleefully tear down all my human rights!
There was just recently a dust-up wherein authors quit a romance con because it was to feature someone who published a Harry Potter fic with the serial numbers filed off, and supporting anything that keeps the brand going is putting money in Rowling’s pocket and thus actively making trans people’s lives worse. People care about this kind of thing; at least, some of 'em do. There are reactions. Some of those are talk about “reclaiming the fandom”, while others regard that as untenable self-justification… But any way you slice it, the subject is very clearly coming up.
In the year since the Neil Gaiman unpleasantness dropped, I’ve lost count of all the threads where people have said that they can’t enjoy his work again, that they are painfully re-evaluating their relationship with Sandman or Coraline or American Gods. They can’t help but engage with the subject. And, hey, I get it! I generally liked his stuff and saw him live at a few events over the years, where he was an enjoyable public speaker. I don’t have a Death tattoo that now needs covering up, but I can still register a loss. Discovering Sandman while visiting a friend on vacation when they were checking it out of the public library… that was an uncomplicatedly happy memory!
This kind of thing grips a person and compels a response. Even if that’s only a self-justifying rationalization of the status quo! But Yudkowsky (to my knowledge) has said nothing, none of the lesswrongs commenting on that interview said anything… I expected something, like a “Rational!Harry is the only canon now”, or a “Methods of Rationality is the greatest fic to be based on the works of Hatsune Miku”. Anything, you know? But I haven’t even seen the step that elsewhere would be the bare minimum.
I don’t think he ever cared that much about Harry Potter in the first place. Much of HPMOR has these odd little uncommented contradictions with the original books that seem to result from skimming or basing your info on fan wikis.
I haven’t seen STRANGE ÆONS’ video about HPMOR here, so I’d strongly recommend checking that out
I enjoyed watching that, even as someone who really liked HPMoR.
I wasn’t aware of a lot of the wider context around the author and the rationalist movement. For example, I read HPMoR with Harry calling all the wizards in the book NPCs as commentary about Rowling’s writing (that her characters and magic system bend to suit the plot, as very few characters have any agency) so every other person at Hogwarts is an NPC, but if Yudkowsky actually believes that people who aren’t rational are, effectively, subhuman, then that twists the interpretation of HPMoR rather dramatically. I’m still not convinced Yudkowsky thinks that, but it’s disheartening to hear that some HPMoR readers basically founded a cult that does believe that.
Thanks for the link! I should check out his other videos. He seems like a really hoopy frood.
I’m still not convinced Yudkowsky thinks that
You should keep it that way; if you read more of his shit then his fascist proclivities will trip over themselves trying to convert you. But also it’ll cause psychic damage. So best to just avoid.
