Scott Alexander had some things to say about "Balkan people", mostly about their height. It started with a photo of the Montenegrin president Milo Đukanović towering over the 5'9" Boris Johnson at the COP26 meeting. Both Đukanović and his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vučić are 6'6", which is not the only thing they have in common.#
Setting aside the ridiculousness of the paper he then goes on to describe, this paragraph really rubbed me the wrong way: #
"Some sources note that they manage to beat the Dutch despite the latter country’s much higher human development index. The Dutch are probably tall through a combination of nature and nurture; Balkan people are tall through nature alone."#
The paper he discusses is about men from Herzegovina. Alexander extrapolates it to everyone on the Balkans, only of course, "The Balkans" likely refers to Western Balkans alone, and only to the Slavic/ex-YU populations, Greeks, Albanians, and Romanians not being that known for their great height. #
Alexander is a prolific writer who can turn a good phrase or five in what seems like minutes. But for a high-profile member of the Rationalist community his takes are less precise than I would expect, particularly about things close to me by the nature of my job or my origins. I will continue following his writing with even more grains of salt than usual, lest I fall pray to Gell-Mann Amnesia.#
Scott Alexander had some things to say about "Balkan people", mostly about their height. It started with a photo of the Montenegrin president Milo Đukanović towering over the 5'9" Boris Johnson at the COP26 meeting. Both Đukanović and his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vučić are 6'6", which is not the only thing they have in common.#
Setting aside the ridiculousness of the paper he then goes on to describe, this paragraph really rubbed me the wrong way: #
"Some sources note that they manage to beat the Dutch despite the latter country’s much higher human development index. The Dutch are probably tall through a combination of nature and nurture; Balkan people are tall through nature alone."#
The paper he discusses is about men from Herzegovina. Alexander extrapolates it to everyone on the Balkans, only of course, "The Balkans" likely refers to Western Balkans alone, and only to the Slavic/ex-YU populations, Greeks, Albanians, and Romanians not being that known for their great height. #
Alexander is a prolific writer who can turn a good phrase or five in what seems like minutes. But for a high-profile member of the Rationalist community his takes are less precise than I would expect, particularly about things close to me by the nature of my job or my origins. I will continue following his writing with even more grains of salt than usual, lest I fall pray to Gell-Mann Amnesia.#