This is not a statement of disagreement, but merely a stylistic concern. I understand that prefacing one’s work with a quotation from a respected figure is often good form. However, if it does not interfere with our purposes too much, could we not make a habit of it at Lesswrong?
I personally don’t really care whether posts have quotations at the top or not, but could you clarify why you don’t like those quotations? Is it something to do with appeal to authority being a fallacy?
I did not mentally categorize the Gandhi quote as being an appeal to authority. Rather, I categorized it as a decoration which contains irrelevant, and potentially false, information.
However, in all honesty, I cannot appeal to any higher principle for why I dislike essays being preceded by, let us say, generic quotations from certain figures. My dislike is probably merely due to aesthetics.
This is not a statement of disagreement, but merely a stylistic concern. I understand that prefacing one’s work with a quotation from a respected figure is often good form. However, if it does not interfere with our purposes too much, could we not make a habit of it at Lesswrong?
I personally don’t really care whether posts have quotations at the top or not, but could you clarify why you don’t like those quotations? Is it something to do with appeal to authority being a fallacy?
I did not mentally categorize the Gandhi quote as being an appeal to authority. Rather, I categorized it as a decoration which contains irrelevant, and potentially false, information.
However, in all honesty, I cannot appeal to any higher principle for why I dislike essays being preceded by, let us say, generic quotations from certain figures. My dislike is probably merely due to aesthetics.