Holden Karnofsky is great, and Less Wrong is a great discussion board in a community for being so receptive of arguing against orthodox views. If he identified as a rationalist, I’m sure this community would be fine counting Holden Karnofsky among themselves. However, some media coverage Less Wrong has received is exactly as it is because bloggers, or journalists, or whoever, don’t come to this site to have a dialogue, and for both sides to learn something from each other.
I don’t think that online forums need media exposure. The usual way to find an online forum is through a Google search or through a shared link to a discussion.
I wrote this comment in the moment without lots of forethought, so I didn’t clarify myself enough. I haven’t invited a student journalist to write an article about Less Wrong to get good press coverage because others are worse. The publication is small enough that it wouldn’t get enough traffic to change the outside cultural perspective of Less Wrong’s culture anyway. One of the editors mentioned to this student journalist that I’m an organizer for the local meetup, and he came with me with lots of questions. Before he asked, he mentioned his impression thus far of Less Wrong was that it was full of ‘hyper-rationalist pseudoscience’, and that a typical belief of Less Wrong was of that of a fear-inspiring imaginary counter-factual monster I need not mention by name.
Anyway, in particular, he may want to profile the local meetup. So, I could let him go on impressions he gets from Slate, and RationalWiki, alone, or he could talk to me, and get an impression that Less Wrong is about literally anything else besides fringe transhumanism.
If the article really becomes a thing, I will invite the journalist to interface with Less Wrong as Holden has. If the article is about ‘what is this intellectual community we [the readership] have heard popping up in town, and what do they believe?’, I will now direct him to the Less Wrong survey results. You’ve inspired me to do this with your feedback, ChristianKI, so thanks.
Holden Karnofsky is great, and Less Wrong is a great discussion board in a community for being so receptive of arguing against orthodox views. If he identified as a rationalist, I’m sure this community would be fine counting Holden Karnofsky among themselves. However, some media coverage Less Wrong has received is exactly as it is because bloggers, or journalists, or whoever, don’t come to this site to have a dialogue, and for both sides to learn something from each other.
I wrote this comment in the moment without lots of forethought, so I didn’t clarify myself enough. I haven’t invited a student journalist to write an article about Less Wrong to get good press coverage because others are worse. The publication is small enough that it wouldn’t get enough traffic to change the outside cultural perspective of Less Wrong’s culture anyway. One of the editors mentioned to this student journalist that I’m an organizer for the local meetup, and he came with me with lots of questions. Before he asked, he mentioned his impression thus far of Less Wrong was that it was full of ‘hyper-rationalist pseudoscience’, and that a typical belief of Less Wrong was of that of a fear-inspiring imaginary counter-factual monster I need not mention by name.
Anyway, in particular, he may want to profile the local meetup. So, I could let him go on impressions he gets from Slate, and RationalWiki, alone, or he could talk to me, and get an impression that Less Wrong is about literally anything else besides fringe transhumanism.
If the article really becomes a thing, I will invite the journalist to interface with Less Wrong as Holden has. If the article is about ‘what is this intellectual community we [the readership] have heard popping up in town, and what do they believe?’, I will now direct him to the Less Wrong survey results. You’ve inspired me to do this with your feedback, ChristianKI, so thanks.