[petercooper]

Sure, it's complicated. The core of the AI world right now isn't that large and in many ecosystems it's common for people to speak to each other behind the scenes and to learn about alleged incidents regarding individuals in the space. Such whispering can become an impediment for someone with a "name" in a space, even if not necessarily a full loss of their reputation or opportunities.

[Der_Einzige]

Except that bad PR is good PR. Trump proves this daily. Terry A Davis proved this in the context of tech (he coined the term "glowie" in its original racially charged usage in addition to temple OS). If Chris Chan ever learned to code to make the Sonichu game of their dreams, I'm sure that there would be a minor bidding war on their "talent"

[petercooper]

Yeah, that can certainly be true! Those sorts of people really seem to lean into their quirky reputation, though. I'm not sure someone could do so well in an academic or engineering discipline and maintain a broad level of professional respect with that approach?