I almost forgot this, but I was pretty put off by the 12 virtues as well when I first came across it on reddit at age 14 or so. My reaction was something like “you’re telling me I should be curious? What if I don’t want to be curious, especially about random stuff like Barbie dolls or stamp collecting?” I think I might have almost sent Eliezer an e-mail about it.
When you put this together with what Eliezer called “the bizarre “can’t get crap done” phenomenon that afflicts large fractions of our community, which he attributes to feelings of low status, this paints a picture of LW putting off the sort of person who is inclined to feel high status (and is therefore good at getting crap done, but doesn’t like being told what to do). This may be unrelated to the cult issue.
Of course, these hypothetical individuals who are inclined to feel high status might not like being told how to think better either… which could mean that Less Wrong is not their cup of tea under any circumstances. But I think it makes sense to shift away from didacticism on the margin.
I almost forgot this, but I was pretty put off by the 12 virtues as well when I first came across it on reddit at age 14 or so. My reaction was something like “you’re telling me I should be curious? What if I don’t want to be curious, especially about random stuff like Barbie dolls or stamp collecting?” I think I might have almost sent Eliezer an e-mail about it.
When you put this together with what Eliezer called “the bizarre “can’t get crap done” phenomenon that afflicts large fractions of our community, which he attributes to feelings of low status, this paints a picture of LW putting off the sort of person who is inclined to feel high status (and is therefore good at getting crap done, but doesn’t like being told what to do). This may be unrelated to the cult issue.
Of course, these hypothetical individuals who are inclined to feel high status might not like being told how to think better either… which could mean that Less Wrong is not their cup of tea under any circumstances. But I think it makes sense to shift away from didacticism on the margin.