I think LW has way too much coronavirus coverage. It was probably useful for us to marshal information when very few others were focusing on it. That was the “exam” component Raemon mentioned. Now, though, we’re stuck in a memetic trap where this high-profile event will massively distract us from things that really matter. I think we should treat this similarly to Slate Star Codex’s culture wars, because it seems to have a similar effect: recognise that our brains are built to overengage with this sort of topic, put it in an isolated thread, and quarantine it from the rest of the site as much as possible.
I agree. Although it’s interesting, it feels like it’s getting outsized attention because it’s a “near” threat. I think this made more sense when the wider public wasn’t taking COVID-19 seriously, but now that they are I don’t think there’s a lot of value in LW continuing to focus on it to the extent that it does. I’m not sure if this is an endorsed policy though or just my personal annoyance at all the COVID-19 stuff taking up space and attention and away from what I still consider a bigger threat in expectation, unaligned AI.
I’m much more inclined to accept, uncritically, posts and questions from users on whatever topics they want to discuss.
I think the pandemic is likely to motivate a lot more non-pandemic work and activity here even if the pandemic continues to account for most of the total activity.
I think LW has way too much coronavirus coverage. It was probably useful for us to marshal information when very few others were focusing on it. That was the “exam” component Raemon mentioned. Now, though, we’re stuck in a memetic trap where this high-profile event will massively distract us from things that really matter. I think we should treat this similarly to Slate Star Codex’s culture wars, because it seems to have a similar effect: recognise that our brains are built to overengage with this sort of topic, put it in an isolated thread, and quarantine it from the rest of the site as much as possible.
I agree. Although it’s interesting, it feels like it’s getting outsized attention because it’s a “near” threat. I think this made more sense when the wider public wasn’t taking COVID-19 seriously, but now that they are I don’t think there’s a lot of value in LW continuing to focus on it to the extent that it does. I’m not sure if this is an endorsed policy though or just my personal annoyance at all the COVID-19 stuff taking up space and attention and away from what I still consider a bigger threat in expectation, unaligned AI.
I’m much more inclined to accept, uncritically, posts and questions from users on whatever topics they want to discuss.
I think the pandemic is likely to motivate a lot more non-pandemic work and activity here even if the pandemic continues to account for most of the total activity.