I think the story you put at the top could be an excellent addition to the sequence itself. The sequence does a great job at “How” and “What” but less so on “Why”. I think talking about your own story and motivations could help people connect to the rest of the sequence and potentially help propel them through the difficult process.
Thanks for your feedback! But I think I stand by the choice to do what I did with the sequence. I said in the very first post that I was writing for “people who already think signing up for cryonics is a good idea but are putting it off because they’re not sure what they actually need to do next”, and I think having that narrower mission let me write a better sequence overall.
My reasoning was that there’s already been a whole lot written on the ‘why’ and ‘whether’ of cryonics, and as someone who’s not particularly passionate about cryonics, I wasn’t the best person to make the case for it. I also didn’t want to use emotional anecdotes to sway readers into signing up for cryonics when I’m not totally sure myself whether it’s worthwhile.
! But I think I stand by the choice to do what I did with the sequence. I said in the very first post that I was writing for “people who already think signing up for cryonics is a good idea but are putting it off because they’re not sure what they actually need to do next”, and I think having that narrower mission let me write a better sequence overall.
Yeah I mean I guess I don’t have a horse in this race, if you think it’s best and you feel good about the sequence that’s what matters
Three months ago, I had a dream my mom died while cryocrastinating, and I decided to finally start the process. It took me about five years after first encountering the idea on LessWrong to feel comfortable enough with it that I wanted to sign up. I still think it’s an incredibly long shot, and I’m probably just using it the way many people use religion – to stave off my crippling fear of death.
FWIW I think this is my favorite explanation/walkthrough of a reason to sign up for cryonics that I’ve heard. I think often even as rationalists that know better it’s easy to get caught in the mindset that “being rational is ignoring emotions when making decisions.”
But of course, emotions are part of reality and ignoring them is exceedingly irrational. I loved this honest emotion-acknowledging take on cryonics and felt a personal “yes” when I imagined this introducing/bringing in the sequence. Combining a very emotional reason/story along with a later very much dry/fact based sequence just feels so aesthetically beautiful to me. So that may explain where I was coming from; at the same time acknowledging you may be coming from a very different place.
I think the story you put at the top could be an excellent addition to the sequence itself. The sequence does a great job at “How” and “What” but less so on “Why”. I think talking about your own story and motivations could help people connect to the rest of the sequence and potentially help propel them through the difficult process.
Thanks for your feedback! But I think I stand by the choice to do what I did with the sequence. I said in the very first post that I was writing for “people who already think signing up for cryonics is a good idea but are putting it off because they’re not sure what they actually need to do next”, and I think having that narrower mission let me write a better sequence overall.
My reasoning was that there’s already been a whole lot written on the ‘why’ and ‘whether’ of cryonics, and as someone who’s not particularly passionate about cryonics, I wasn’t the best person to make the case for it. I also didn’t want to use emotional anecdotes to sway readers into signing up for cryonics when I’m not totally sure myself whether it’s worthwhile.
Yeah I mean I guess I don’t have a horse in this race, if you think it’s best and you feel good about the sequence that’s what matters
FWIW I think this is my favorite explanation/walkthrough of a reason to sign up for cryonics that I’ve heard. I think often even as rationalists that know better it’s easy to get caught in the mindset that “being rational is ignoring emotions when making decisions.”
But of course, emotions are part of reality and ignoring them is exceedingly irrational. I loved this honest emotion-acknowledging take on cryonics and felt a personal “yes” when I imagined this introducing/bringing in the sequence. Combining a very emotional reason/story along with a later very much dry/fact based sequence just feels so aesthetically beautiful to me. So that may explain where I was coming from; at the same time acknowledging you may be coming from a very different place.