Eulogies on arbitrary people might help with motivation, and if you’re doing that you might as well chose one with a minor advantage like not needing a long introduction to make the reader empathize, rather than choosing purely at random.
Eulogies on arbitrary people might help with motivation, and if you’re doing that you might as well chose one with a minor advantage like not needing a long introduction to make the reader empathize, rather than choosing purely at random.
Are you suggesting that putting eulogies of famous people on LessWrong is a good idea? That sort of sounds like justifying something you’ve already decided.
Not quite. I’m saying that GIVEN you want to spend a post reminding people that death is bad, talking about a single death might be more motivating then many. And that GIVEN you want to talk about the death of an arbitrary individual, you might as well chose one likely know to the reader than one that is not.
“One death is a tragedy. One million deaths is a statistic.”
If you want to remind people that death is bad, agreed, the death of individuals you know or feel like you know is worse than lots of people you never met or even saw.
Eulogies on arbitrary people might help with motivation, and if you’re doing that you might as well chose one with a minor advantage like not needing a long introduction to make the reader empathize, rather than choosing purely at random.
Are you suggesting that putting eulogies of famous people on LessWrong is a good idea? That sort of sounds like justifying something you’ve already decided.
Not quite. I’m saying that GIVEN you want to spend a post reminding people that death is bad, talking about a single death might be more motivating then many. And that GIVEN you want to talk about the death of an arbitrary individual, you might as well chose one likely know to the reader than one that is not.
“One death is a tragedy. One million deaths is a statistic.”
If you want to remind people that death is bad, agreed, the death of individuals you know or feel like you know is worse than lots of people you never met or even saw.