I think that some MIRI researchers, or at least active community members, originally encountered the LW/MIRI memeplex through HPMoR.
Also, I met someone who said he was formerly very religious and is now an atheist. He said that he was brought into the LW world through HPMoR and HPMoR seemed to still be the main focus of his interests inside this memeplex. Though I can’t say that HPMoR was the only cause of his shift of attitudes or even the main one, it apparently had an important role..
So, it does seem that HPMoR has some strong effects on some people.
Yes, but some people praise the book itself as utterly exceptional. Atlas Shrugged may introduce people to Objectivism, but even the fanatics who praise the ideas in it don’t praise it as literature.
“Atlas Shrugged is the greatest novel that has ever been written, in my judgment, so let’s let it go at that.” — Nathaniel Branden, quoted in a 1971 interview in Reason magazine.
In some respects, it is. If you’ve always been put off by idiot balls or stupid moves or leaving exploits on the table or any number of other things, HPMoR scratches an itch that you’ve had all along.
Certainly. I’m interested in why people would say either of these things. From my reading, HPMoR is interesting and well-written, but it’s hard to see why it would change someone’s life or why someone would think it was an utterly new mold-breaking work of literature.
I wasn’t aware that people have been changing their “life-pattern” after reading it. Are there any examples?
I think that some MIRI researchers, or at least active community members, originally encountered the LW/MIRI memeplex through HPMoR.
Also, I met someone who said he was formerly very religious and is now an atheist. He said that he was brought into the LW world through HPMoR and HPMoR seemed to still be the main focus of his interests inside this memeplex. Though I can’t say that HPMoR was the only cause of his shift of attitudes or even the main one, it apparently had an important role..
So, it does seem that HPMoR has some strong effects on some people.
I think it’s main effect is as a gateway to studying rationality.
Yes, but some people praise the book itself as utterly exceptional. Atlas Shrugged may introduce people to Objectivism, but even the fanatics who praise the ideas in it don’t praise it as literature.
“Atlas Shrugged is the greatest novel that has ever been written, in my judgment, so let’s let it go at that.”
— Nathaniel Branden, quoted in a 1971 interview in Reason magazine.
In some respects, it is. If you’ve always been put off by idiot balls or stupid moves or leaving exploits on the table or any number of other things, HPMoR scratches an itch that you’ve had all along.
I think those are two separate things—“it changed my life” and “It’s exceptional literature” are different, although they’re not uncorrelated.
Certainly. I’m interested in why people would say either of these things. From my reading, HPMoR is interesting and well-written, but it’s hard to see why it would change someone’s life or why someone would think it was an utterly new mold-breaking work of literature.
I think the main effect wrt the former is as a introduction to rationality and the Sequences