Something I’ve noticed from posting more of my thoughts online:
People who disagree with your conclusion to begin with are more likely to carefully read and point out errors in your reasoning/argumentation, or instances where you’ve made incorrect factual claims. Whereas people who agree with your conclusion before reading are more likely to consciously or subconsciously gloss over any flaws in your writing because they are onboard with the “broad strokes”.
So your best criticism ends up coming with a negative valence, i.e. from people who disagree with your conclusion to begin with.
(LessWrong has much less of this bias than other places, though I still see some of it.)
Thus a better way of framing criticism is to narrowly discuss some issue with reasoning, putting aside any views about the conclusion, leaving its possible reevaluation an implicit exercise for the readers.
Criticism quality-valence bias
Something I’ve noticed from posting more of my thoughts online:
People who disagree with your conclusion to begin with are more likely to carefully read and point out errors in your reasoning/argumentation, or instances where you’ve made incorrect factual claims. Whereas people who agree with your conclusion before reading are more likely to consciously or subconsciously gloss over any flaws in your writing because they are onboard with the “broad strokes”.
So your best criticism ends up coming with a negative valence, i.e. from people who disagree with your conclusion to begin with.
(LessWrong has much less of this bias than other places, though I still see some of it.)
Thus a better way of framing criticism is to narrowly discuss some issue with reasoning, putting aside any views about the conclusion, leaving its possible reevaluation an implicit exercise for the readers.