I thought SENS should focus where they had a competitive advantage – intellectual stuff – but AdG 1) turns out to be a bad intellectual 2) explicitly wanted to use any and all non-intellectual tools. One context for my opinion was donation campaigns and marketing, that I thought should try to stand out intellectually instead of trying to blend in with the same pandering that other charities use.
He likes being the general in such a major cause. It glorifies him and he thinks it justifies stuff, like non-intellectual methods, that would otherwise be bad. Ironically he thinks trying to do something so important justifies him worrying about rationality less.
But he doesn’t see it as a responsibility to live up to. He’s never like “This is a big deal, and I’m the general, so I damn well better make the SENS newsletter and website be good. I need to get some website and internet marketing experts.” Doing a shitty job at some stuff is fine with him, and then he brings up being a general when it suits him.