Interview with gwern

The headline contradicts itself. Gwern is pseudonymous, not anonymous.

You can see this with many words – the most commonly known word gradually encompasses all similar ones. I don't know if there is a formal linguistic term, but I call it "conceptual compression." It's when a concept used to have multiple levels, but now just has one. It seems like an inevitable outcome in a society that doesn't care about using language accurately.

I'm not quite so pessimistic: just as often, we have concepts splitting in twain to show new distinctions.

Btw, the article gets it right and starts with 'Gwern is a pseudonymous researcher and writer.'

Headlines are seldom decided by the writers.