Generally, I try to avoid any subreddits with more than a million subscribers (even 100k is noticeably bad).
Some personal recommendations (although I believe discovering reddit was net negative for my life in the long term):
Typical reddit humor: /r/breadstapledtotrees, /r/chairsunderwater (although the jokes get old quickly). /r/bossfight is nice, I enjoy it.
I highly recommend /r/vxjunkies. I also like /r/surrealmemes.
/r/sorceryofthespectacle, /r/shruglifesyndicate for aesthetic incoherent doomer philosophy based on situationism. /r/criticaltheory for less incoherent, but also less interesting discussions of critical theory.
/r/thalassophobia is great of you don’t have it (in a simile vein, /r/thedepthsbelow). I also like /r/fifthworldpics and sometimes /r/fearme, but highly NSFW at this point. /r/vagabond is fascinating.
/r/streamentry for high-quality meditation discussion, and /r/mlscaling for discussions about the scaling of machine learning networks. Generally, the subreddits gwern posts in have high-quality links (though often little discussion). I also love /r/Conlanging, /r/neography and /r/vexillology.
I also enjoy /r/negativeutilitarians. /r/jazz sometimes gives good music recommendations. Strongly recommend /r/museum.
/r/mildlyinteresting totally delivers, /r/not interesting is sometimes pretty funny.
And, of course, /r/slatestarcodex and /r/changemyview. /r/thelastpsychiatrist sometimes has very good discussions, but I don’t read it often. /r/askhistorians has the reputation of containing accurate and comprehensive information, though I haven’t read much of it.
General recommendations: Many subreddits have good sidebars and wikis, it’s often useful to read them (e. g. the wiki of /r/bodyweight fitness or /r/streamentry), but not aleays. I strongly recommend using old.reddit.com, together with the reddit enhancement suite. The old layout loads faster, and RES let’s you tag people, expand linked images/videos in-place and much more. Top posts of all time are great on good subs, and memes on all the others.Still great to get a feel for the community.
Generally, I have a sense that there are all kinds of really cool niche intellectual communities on the internet, and Reddit might be a good place to find some.
I guess what I most want is “things that could/should be rationalist adjacent, but aren’t”, not that that’s very helpful.
So the obvious options are r/rational, r/litrpg, …
That being the case, these seem like the most relevant para from your recs:
/r/streamentry for high-quality meditation discussion, and /r/mlscaling for discussions about the scaling of machine learning networks. Generally, the subreddits gwern posts in have high-quality links (though often little discussion). I also love /r/Conlanging, /r/neography and /r/vexillology.
And, of course, /r/slatestarcodex and /r/changemyview. /r/thelastpsychiatrist sometimes has very good discussions, but I don’t read it often. /r/askhistorians has the reputation of containing accurate and comprehensive information, though I haven’t read much of it.
… I’m probably not going to be very serious about reddit; I’ve tried before and not stuck with it. But finding things that aren’t just inane could be a big help.
This sounds like a really useful filter:
Top posts of all time are great on good subs, and memes on all the others.Still great to get a feel for the community.
What are your goals?
Generally, I try to avoid any subreddits with more than a million subscribers (even 100k is noticeably bad).
Some personal recommendations (although I believe discovering reddit was net negative for my life in the long term):
Typical reddit humor: /r/breadstapledtotrees, /r/chairsunderwater (although the jokes get old quickly). /r/bossfight is nice, I enjoy it.
I highly recommend /r/vxjunkies. I also like /r/surrealmemes.
/r/sorceryofthespectacle, /r/shruglifesyndicate for aesthetic incoherent doomer philosophy based on situationism. /r/criticaltheory for less incoherent, but also less interesting discussions of critical theory.
/r/thalassophobia is great of you don’t have it (in a simile vein, /r/thedepthsbelow). I also like /r/fifthworldpics and sometimes /r/fearme, but highly NSFW at this point. /r/vagabond is fascinating.
/r/streamentry for high-quality meditation discussion, and /r/mlscaling for discussions about the scaling of machine learning networks. Generally, the subreddits gwern posts in have high-quality links (though often little discussion). I also love /r/Conlanging, /r/neography and /r/vexillology.
I also enjoy /r/negativeutilitarians. /r/jazz sometimes gives good music recommendations. Strongly recommend /r/museum.
/r/mildlyinteresting totally delivers, /r/not interesting is sometimes pretty funny.
And, of course, /r/slatestarcodex and /r/changemyview. /r/thelastpsychiatrist sometimes has very good discussions, but I don’t read it often. /r/askhistorians has the reputation of containing accurate and comprehensive information, though I haven’t read much of it.
General recommendations: Many subreddits have good sidebars and wikis, it’s often useful to read them (e. g. the wiki of /r/bodyweight fitness or /r/streamentry), but not aleays. I strongly recommend using old.reddit.com, together with the reddit enhancement suite. The old layout loads faster, and RES let’s you tag people, expand linked images/videos in-place and much more. Top posts of all time are great on good subs, and memes on all the others.Still great to get a feel for the community.
Second on reddit being net-negative. Would recommend avoiding before it gets hooks in your brain.
yeahhhh maybe so.
I just had a positive interaction with a highly technical subreddit, and wanted more random highly-capable intellectual stuff.
But reddit is definitely not actually for that.
Thanks for all the recommendations!
Generally, I have a sense that there are all kinds of really cool niche intellectual communities on the internet, and Reddit might be a good place to find some.
I guess what I most want is “things that could/should be rationalist adjacent, but aren’t”, not that that’s very helpful.
So the obvious options are r/rational, r/litrpg, …
That being the case, these seem like the most relevant para from your recs:
… I’m probably not going to be very serious about reddit; I’ve tried before and not stuck with it. But finding things that aren’t just inane could be a big help.
This sounds like a really useful filter: