I agree with you on the value on schmoozing. Alas, I think it’s going to be hard to convince many LessWrong readers of the value. Many see it as not merely some annoying thing, but as actively evil, a source of badness in the world. True, I think they take this view because they don’t understand it and are unskilled at it, so on their current values it’s clearly negative, even if they would perhaps change their mind if they understood its function better, were better at doing it, and more saw the benefits of schmoozing personally.
I’m not really sure how to fix this, but thank you for thinking and writing about it!
I agree with you on the value on schmoozing. Alas, I think it’s going to be hard to convince many LessWrong readers of the value. Many see it as not merely some annoying thing, but as actively evil, a source of badness in the world. True, I think they take this view because they don’t understand it and are unskilled at it, so on their current values it’s clearly negative, even if they would perhaps change their mind if they understood its function better, were better at doing it, and more saw the benefits of schmoozing personally.
I’m not really sure how to fix this, but thank you for thinking and writing about it!