I shall preface by saying that I am neither a rationalist nor an aspiring rationalist. Instead, I would classify myself as a “rationality consumer”—I enjoy debating philosophy and reading good competence/insight porn. My life is good enough that I don’t anticipate much subjective value from optimizing my decisionmaking.
Thanks so much for saying this! Thinking about this distinction you made, I feel there may be actually four groups of LW readers, with different needs or expectations from the website:
“Science/Tech Fans”—want more articles about new scientific research and new technologies. “Has anyone recently discovered a new particle, or built a new machine? Give me a popular science article about it!”
“Competence/Insight Consumers”—want more articles about pop psychology theories and life hacks. They feel they are already doing great, and only want to improve small details. “What do you believe is the true source of human motivation, and how do you organize your to-do lists? But first, give me your credentials: are you a successful person?”
“Already Solving a Problem”—want feedback on their progress, and information speficially useful for them. Highly specific; two people in the same category working on completely different problems probably wouldn’t benefit too much from talking to each other. If they achieve critical mass, it would be best to make a subgroup for them (except that LW currently does not support creating subgroups).
“Not Started Yet”—inspired by the Sequences, they would like to optimize their lives and the universe, but… they are stuck in place, or advancing very very slowly. They hope for some good advice that would make something “click”, and help them leave the ground.
Maybe it’s poll time… what do you want to read about?
Thanks so much for saying this! Thinking about this distinction you made, I feel there may be actually four groups of LW readers, with different needs or expectations from the website:
“Science/Tech Fans”—want more articles about new scientific research and new technologies. “Has anyone recently discovered a new particle, or built a new machine? Give me a popular science article about it!”
“Competence/Insight Consumers”—want more articles about pop psychology theories and life hacks. They feel they are already doing great, and only want to improve small details. “What do you believe is the true source of human motivation, and how do you organize your to-do lists? But first, give me your credentials: are you a successful person?”
“Already Solving a Problem”—want feedback on their progress, and information speficially useful for them. Highly specific; two people in the same category working on completely different problems probably wouldn’t benefit too much from talking to each other. If they achieve critical mass, it would be best to make a subgroup for them (except that LW currently does not support creating subgroups).
“Not Started Yet”—inspired by the Sequences, they would like to optimize their lives and the universe, but… they are stuck in place, or advancing very very slowly. They hope for some good advice that would make something “click”, and help them leave the ground.
Maybe it’s poll time… what do you want to read about?
[pollid:1176]