I like your style of writing. Though: too many ideas, difficult to rate and respond.
Karma always has a random component. Karma of one comment is not significant. Karma of 10 comments shows a trend. I have once received a negative karma for a comment showing an obvious error in reasoning of others; but it only happened once in maybe hundred comments, so I don’t make a drama of it. But yeah, it might be painful if that happened to someone’s first comment on LW.
Instrumental rationality is a known problem of intelligent people. My worst experience was Mensa: huge signalling, almost nothing ever done; and if something is done, it’s usually always done by the same two or three people, who could just as well have it done on their own. Compared with that, people at LW are relatively high in instrumental rationality—they have a working website, they write good articles, they do research, they organize meetups and seminars. But yes, we could do a lot better. Instead of going meta, people could focus and write about things they care about. Not doing this on a web discussion is probably a symptom of not doing it in the real life.
Yes, being convinced of one’s own rationality can lead to overconfidence. I don’t know a cure. Perhaps repeated exposure to disagreement of other rational people will eventually move one to update. Another reason for people focusing on what they are good at—providing more evidence for their rationalist friends.
Re: last three paragraphs—the choice to stay or leave is on you. Don’t participate in the discussions you consider worthless, write something about the real things you work on. (And perhaps I should do the same.) But this is not a new idea—we have regular threads “what are you working on” here.
Same dude here, despite the name. Hypothetical: Should a prof at, say, Harvard working on the genetics of longevity post and spend time here?
Discussing his own work would be identifying and probably not very productive. Let’s further say he’s pre-tenure. Top places have a very different tenure success rate than even very good places, so it’s an iffy point in his career.
Does Less Wrong have anything to offer him? And doesn’t he serve Less Wrong best by staying away and working? (or even “playing” elsewhere)
My central criticism of this place may well be that some of you won’t see there really is no question what the right answer is.
Incidentally, perfectly agree with your comment TimS, but the point is that I internalized those ideas independent of LessWrong. ViliamBur, you misunderstood my Karma point. I was merely acknowledging that my comment’s being upvoted and Dmitry’s downvoted means I can’t use it to indict the community at large (and instead was offering is as illustration of my mindset). Luke: yup. But I did skim through the papers from the institute. Not very good. I suspect I can mostly infer the sequences from very basic background knowledge in game theory, philosophy, physics, neuroscience, psych, etc, and reading current comments threads. I don’t see anything too fancy implied by the secondary sources (I enjoy reading the back-and-forth more).
Uh, what else. I enjoy HPMOR. What I like about it, however, is bad about me: Basically what Robin feared in his comment on OvercomingBias. I should (and will) go. It goes without saying that you wish me well. I just felt like saying hello because I like you. And if you can make it so I can talk to you profitably, I’d like that. Not your fault and I’m sorry to have said it, but I thought you should know.
You should reply to different commenters individually, since then it will send them each notifications that you’re replying. Few readers check all branches of the thread that they replied to.
Hypothetical: Should a prof at, say, Harvard working on the genetics of longevity post and spend time here? [...] Does Less Wrong have anything to offer him?
He could discuss the less crtitical parts of his work. If there is a meetup near his home, he could go there and try to find someone to cooperate with. Or if he is expert at genetics but less expert on math, he could ask someone to help him with statistics.
Also, he could just spend here his free time, if he prefers company of rational people and has problem finding it outside of his work.
And doesn’t he serve Less Wrong best by staying away and working?
That question is relevant for all of us, experts or not. Even for me there are many things I should be doing rather than procrastinating on LW. However, I know myself -- I spent a lot of time online, so given that, at least I can choose a site that gives me intelligent discussions.
If you spend your time better, keep doing what works for you. Maybe visiting LW once a month and reading the articles in the “Main” part would be a reasonable compromise, if you want to participate. (I don’t know if there is an RSS feed for “Main”.)
He could discuss the less crtitical parts of his work. If there is a meetup near his home, he could go there and try to find someone to cooperate with. Or if he is expert at genetics but less expert on math, he could ask someone to help him with statistics.
Suppose you were a professional researcher looking for statistical help. Would you (A) go to a LessWrong meetup, (B), give a talk at the Statistics department of your hypothetical university, or (C) ask your colleagues which statisticians or statistically-literate graduate students they have collaborated with recently?
I’m sure the LessWrong community believes in statistics, which is good. But I don’t believe the average member of this crowd is any better at the humdrum practicalities of statistical hypothesis testing than your average working scientist. I would guess LessWrong skews younger and less expert.
Also, he could just spend here his free time, if he prefers company of rational people and has problem finding it outside of his work.
You will not have a hard time finding smart rational people on the Harvard campus! Or, for that matter, near any major university.
I’m with twolier—LessWrong is fun, but I don’t see it being all that professionally valuable for people in most technical fields.
I like your style of writing. Though: too many ideas, difficult to rate and respond.
Karma always has a random component. Karma of one comment is not significant. Karma of 10 comments shows a trend. I have once received a negative karma for a comment showing an obvious error in reasoning of others; but it only happened once in maybe hundred comments, so I don’t make a drama of it. But yeah, it might be painful if that happened to someone’s first comment on LW.
Instrumental rationality is a known problem of intelligent people. My worst experience was Mensa: huge signalling, almost nothing ever done; and if something is done, it’s usually always done by the same two or three people, who could just as well have it done on their own. Compared with that, people at LW are relatively high in instrumental rationality—they have a working website, they write good articles, they do research, they organize meetups and seminars. But yes, we could do a lot better. Instead of going meta, people could focus and write about things they care about. Not doing this on a web discussion is probably a symptom of not doing it in the real life.
Yes, being convinced of one’s own rationality can lead to overconfidence. I don’t know a cure. Perhaps repeated exposure to disagreement of other rational people will eventually move one to update. Another reason for people focusing on what they are good at—providing more evidence for their rationalist friends.
Re: last three paragraphs—the choice to stay or leave is on you. Don’t participate in the discussions you consider worthless, write something about the real things you work on. (And perhaps I should do the same.) But this is not a new idea—we have regular threads “what are you working on” here.
Same dude here, despite the name. Hypothetical: Should a prof at, say, Harvard working on the genetics of longevity post and spend time here?
Discussing his own work would be identifying and probably not very productive. Let’s further say he’s pre-tenure. Top places have a very different tenure success rate than even very good places, so it’s an iffy point in his career.
Does Less Wrong have anything to offer him? And doesn’t he serve Less Wrong best by staying away and working? (or even “playing” elsewhere)
My central criticism of this place may well be that some of you won’t see there really is no question what the right answer is.
Incidentally, perfectly agree with your comment TimS, but the point is that I internalized those ideas independent of LessWrong. ViliamBur, you misunderstood my Karma point. I was merely acknowledging that my comment’s being upvoted and Dmitry’s downvoted means I can’t use it to indict the community at large (and instead was offering is as illustration of my mindset). Luke: yup. But I did skim through the papers from the institute. Not very good. I suspect I can mostly infer the sequences from very basic background knowledge in game theory, philosophy, physics, neuroscience, psych, etc, and reading current comments threads. I don’t see anything too fancy implied by the secondary sources (I enjoy reading the back-and-forth more).
Uh, what else. I enjoy HPMOR. What I like about it, however, is bad about me: Basically what Robin feared in his comment on OvercomingBias. I should (and will) go. It goes without saying that you wish me well. I just felt like saying hello because I like you. And if you can make it so I can talk to you profitably, I’d like that. Not your fault and I’m sorry to have said it, but I thought you should know.
You should reply to different commenters individually, since then it will send them each notifications that you’re replying. Few readers check all branches of the thread that they replied to.
He could discuss the less crtitical parts of his work. If there is a meetup near his home, he could go there and try to find someone to cooperate with. Or if he is expert at genetics but less expert on math, he could ask someone to help him with statistics.
Also, he could just spend here his free time, if he prefers company of rational people and has problem finding it outside of his work.
That question is relevant for all of us, experts or not. Even for me there are many things I should be doing rather than procrastinating on LW. However, I know myself -- I spent a lot of time online, so given that, at least I can choose a site that gives me intelligent discussions.
If you spend your time better, keep doing what works for you. Maybe visiting LW once a month and reading the articles in the “Main” part would be a reasonable compromise, if you want to participate. (I don’t know if there is an RSS feed for “Main”.)
Suppose you were a professional researcher looking for statistical help. Would you (A) go to a LessWrong meetup, (B), give a talk at the Statistics department of your hypothetical university, or (C) ask your colleagues which statisticians or statistically-literate graduate students they have collaborated with recently?
I’m sure the LessWrong community believes in statistics, which is good. But I don’t believe the average member of this crowd is any better at the humdrum practicalities of statistical hypothesis testing than your average working scientist. I would guess LessWrong skews younger and less expert.
You will not have a hard time finding smart rational people on the Harvard campus! Or, for that matter, near any major university.
I’m with twolier—LessWrong is fun, but I don’t see it being all that professionally valuable for people in most technical fields.