I believe that the “problem” is that Lesswrong loves contrarians.
If a smart-sounding article espousing conservative opinions on social issues appears, most lesswrongers will disagree but be interested in reading anyway because it’s novel and there is a dearth of smart conservative opinions in the world, and the exciting chance to “actually change their mind” looms.
If a smart-sounding article espousing liberal opinions on social issues appears, most lesswrongers will agree but be disinterested in reading because they’ve heard it all before, and it’s preaching to the choir, and it’s political and mind-killing, etc.
This reversal of traditional attitudes to disagreement has its merits, but we’re seeing the downsides too. (one of the many reasons I advocate having separate feedback buttons for agreement, interest, and quality assessment)
Doesn’t this problem gradually fix itself? For example, at the beginning I was interested in Moldbug’s articles, but these days I just consider them boring. I have already heard the big picture; there is now nothing new, just reiterating what was already said; the lack of evidence or even clear explanations is very annoying, and I have already given up hope that it could be improved.
These days, if someone says something seemingly smart like “Cthulhu always swims left”, my first though is: give me a definition of what the hell do you even mean by this, then give me an evidence that it really happens, and if you don’t give any of it (which is my expectation based on previous experience) then just please shut up because you’re wasting my time.
Speaking for myself, the neo-reactionaries had their chance (which I consider to be a good thing—because I learned a few interesting things), and they wasted it.
I’m not sure, but my personal experience does mostly mirror yours. LW is not a stable group, though—there’s a cycle of users entering and leaving, and the total number of active people at any given time is quite small.
I believe that the “problem” is that Lesswrong loves contrarians.
If a smart-sounding article espousing conservative opinions on social issues appears, most lesswrongers will disagree but be interested in reading anyway because it’s novel and there is a dearth of smart conservative opinions in the world, and the exciting chance to “actually change their mind” looms.
If a smart-sounding article espousing liberal opinions on social issues appears, most lesswrongers will agree but be disinterested in reading because they’ve heard it all before, and it’s preaching to the choir, and it’s political and mind-killing, etc.
This reversal of traditional attitudes to disagreement has its merits, but we’re seeing the downsides too. (one of the many reasons I advocate having separate feedback buttons for agreement, interest, and quality assessment)
Doesn’t this problem gradually fix itself? For example, at the beginning I was interested in Moldbug’s articles, but these days I just consider them boring. I have already heard the big picture; there is now nothing new, just reiterating what was already said; the lack of evidence or even clear explanations is very annoying, and I have already given up hope that it could be improved.
These days, if someone says something seemingly smart like “Cthulhu always swims left”, my first though is: give me a definition of what the hell do you even mean by this, then give me an evidence that it really happens, and if you don’t give any of it (which is my expectation based on previous experience) then just please shut up because you’re wasting my time.
Speaking for myself, the neo-reactionaries had their chance (which I consider to be a good thing—because I learned a few interesting things), and they wasted it.
I’m not sure, but my personal experience does mostly mirror yours. LW is not a stable group, though—there’s a cycle of users entering and leaving, and the total number of active people at any given time is quite small.