In general, having articles accessible for everyone is nice, but it isn’t necessary. We already had very math-heavy LW articles. Just as well we could have anything-else-heavy articles, as long as enough people here understand the topic, so they can express their opinions on whether it makes sense or is a bullshit.
You can always ask in the open thread: “Hi, I am going to write a topic about X (be quite specific here), what do you think about it?” Add options like “I wouldn’t understand it”, “I already know that”, “I would like to read it”, and maybe “I would understand it, but I’m not actually interested in reading it” and let people vote. But essentially the only part you care about it how many people will answer “I would like to read it”.
The example with the mitochondria seems okay if the formally educated people didn’t find obvious mistakes. I was rather thinking about some bad examples where either the author was saying repeatedly “uhm… I actually don’t understand this… so… maybe...” and just kept confusing everyone, or where the author was making obvious mistakes that made all present experts roll their eyes, but the author didn’t care about feedback and continued to dig deeper.
If you are not an expert, what made you think that Nick Lane’s books are better than random garbage? I see two options: either you trust his credentials, or you have already read enough books in biology that there is a chance that you would notice something off. Preferably both. That seems okay to me. (What I would hate to see is the approach like “I don’t know anything about this, but here is this cool youtube video about how quantum thinking allows you to do magic with your mind”, that is neither a reliable source, nor sufficient background to distinguish signal from garbage.)
If you are not an expert, what made you think that Nick Lane’s books are better than random garbage? I see two options: either you trust his credentials, or you have already read enough books in biology that there is a chance that you would notice something off.
Let’s run with this, not because I need to decide this case, but as an example:
He has reasonable credentials: he’s Reader in Evolutionary Biochemistry (the exact subject of his books), University College, London. He has written several books on the subject with high Amazon rank. Most things he says aren’t original to him and he’s careful to cite the origins of each idea.
But with all that, I have no real idea of how other people in his field perceive him or his theories. All the reviews I found with Google were positive but also weren’t by experts in that particular field. I also don’t have a sense of how much counterevidence there might be that he doesn’t mention.
I have read many tens of books popularizing biology, paleontology, history of evolution, etc. And I studied undergrad biology for three semesters. But I don’t have a professional understanding, and I haven’t read technical literature relevant to Lane’s theories.
I do sometimes notice ‘something being off’. But in most of these cases I don’t think I’m capable of distinguishing the author being wrong from myself being wrong.
I’m afraid of spreading misinformation that only an expert would notice, because there may not be any experts in the audience (and also my reputation would take a big hit). So the question is: how (meta-)certain should I be before publishing something on LW?
In general, having articles accessible for everyone is nice, but it isn’t necessary. We already had very math-heavy LW articles. Just as well we could have anything-else-heavy articles, as long as enough people here understand the topic, so they can express their opinions on whether it makes sense or is a bullshit.
You can always ask in the open thread: “Hi, I am going to write a topic about X (be quite specific here), what do you think about it?” Add options like “I wouldn’t understand it”, “I already know that”, “I would like to read it”, and maybe “I would understand it, but I’m not actually interested in reading it” and let people vote. But essentially the only part you care about it how many people will answer “I would like to read it”.
The example with the mitochondria seems okay if the formally educated people didn’t find obvious mistakes. I was rather thinking about some bad examples where either the author was saying repeatedly “uhm… I actually don’t understand this… so… maybe...” and just kept confusing everyone, or where the author was making obvious mistakes that made all present experts roll their eyes, but the author didn’t care about feedback and continued to dig deeper.
If you are not an expert, what made you think that Nick Lane’s books are better than random garbage? I see two options: either you trust his credentials, or you have already read enough books in biology that there is a chance that you would notice something off. Preferably both. That seems okay to me. (What I would hate to see is the approach like “I don’t know anything about this, but here is this cool youtube video about how quantum thinking allows you to do magic with your mind”, that is neither a reliable source, nor sufficient background to distinguish signal from garbage.)
Let’s run with this, not because I need to decide this case, but as an example:
He has reasonable credentials: he’s Reader in Evolutionary Biochemistry (the exact subject of his books), University College, London. He has written several books on the subject with high Amazon rank. Most things he says aren’t original to him and he’s careful to cite the origins of each idea.
But with all that, I have no real idea of how other people in his field perceive him or his theories. All the reviews I found with Google were positive but also weren’t by experts in that particular field. I also don’t have a sense of how much counterevidence there might be that he doesn’t mention.
I have read many tens of books popularizing biology, paleontology, history of evolution, etc. And I studied undergrad biology for three semesters. But I don’t have a professional understanding, and I haven’t read technical literature relevant to Lane’s theories.
I do sometimes notice ‘something being off’. But in most of these cases I don’t think I’m capable of distinguishing the author being wrong from myself being wrong.
I’m afraid of spreading misinformation that only an expert would notice, because there may not be any experts in the audience (and also my reputation would take a big hit). So the question is: how (meta-)certain should I be before publishing something on LW?
Well, I plan to publish articles with much less evidence. I am not a scientist, and I usually don’t check the references.
I’d say go ahead.
On this, Nate Soares’ Confidence All the Way Up is worth reading.