I had a good laugh reading the negative reviews of the Sequences on Goodreads. For every ten silent aspiring rationalists loving it exactly the way it is, there’s one vocal critic saying things like:
The book is very informative and I really liked some parts, but it was a very difficult read. Why? Because Yudkowsky simply LOVES beating a dead horse. There’s just too much repetition and sloppy writing, although the ideas are great. It’s just… It ought to be more concise and clear.
This one was really hard to rate as my reactions to each post and sequence varied from “jeez, this just nailed it” to “meh, why are you explaining the same thing over and over again”.
Eliezer knew exactly how important it is to explain the same thing using different words again and again.
I think of it more as “There are 10 pre-requisites for understanding concept X. Most people have 6 or seven, and then I write a blog post for each of the 10. Most people, most of the time, feel like they’re reading a thing they already know, yet I did have to write all 10 to be able to get everyone to take the step forward together.”
I had a good laugh reading the negative reviews of the Sequences on Goodreads. For every ten silent aspiring rationalists loving it exactly the way it is, there’s one vocal critic saying things like:
Eliezer knew exactly how important it is to explain the same thing using different words again and again.
I think of it more as “There are 10 pre-requisites for understanding concept X. Most people have 6 or seven, and then I write a blog post for each of the 10. Most people, most of the time, feel like they’re reading a thing they already know, yet I did have to write all 10 to be able to get everyone to take the step forward together.”