Is anything known about how many people who weren’t already rationalists have been inspired by HPMOR to make a serious effort at being rational and changing the world, and (even harder to find out) what they have actually done as a result?
I have been keeping track of which people have read at least parts of HPMOR either directly or indirectly because of my recommendation, so I think I can give at least a rough idea of what the answer may look like.
All of this is as far as I know, I haven’t directly asked many of the people about this.
Including myself, I know of 14 people who read (parts of) HPMOR (excluding the people I’ve met through LW/EA of course). Of those:
3 (including myself) I would consider actively involved in the LW community, having read a lot of the rationalist materials and going to real-life meetups
3 are interested in rationality but haven’t actually looked into it that much
6 don’t seem interested in learning more about rationality
2 I don’t know anything about
The first group of people is probably has the highest percentage of “people who […] have been inspired by HPMOR to make a serious effort at being rational and changing the world”, but it’s not inconceivable that those people also exist in the other groups. And it is only the first group, that it would be possible to capture with a LW survey.
Thanks! Just to check I’ve understood, these are all people who had no previous exposure to the LW community before you said “hey, why don’t you read this thing”?
Do you have any conjectures about how the results might have been different if HPMOR hadn’t existed and instead you’d pointed them at the LW website, or the “Sequences”, or some non-LW resource with related content (e.g., one of the various books about irrationality and cognitive biases and the like)?
I have been keeping track of which people have read at least parts of HPMOR either directly or indirectly because of my recommendation, so I think I can give at least a rough idea of what the answer may look like.
All of this is as far as I know, I haven’t directly asked many of the people about this.
Including myself, I know of 14 people who read (parts of) HPMOR (excluding the people I’ve met through LW/EA of course). Of those:
3 (including myself) I would consider actively involved in the LW community, having read a lot of the rationalist materials and going to real-life meetups
3 are interested in rationality but haven’t actually looked into it that much
6 don’t seem interested in learning more about rationality
2 I don’t know anything about
The first group of people is probably has the highest percentage of “people who […] have been inspired by HPMOR to make a serious effort at being rational and changing the world”, but it’s not inconceivable that those people also exist in the other groups. And it is only the first group, that it would be possible to capture with a LW survey.
Thanks! Just to check I’ve understood, these are all people who had no previous exposure to the LW community before you said “hey, why don’t you read this thing”?
Do you have any conjectures about how the results might have been different if HPMOR hadn’t existed and instead you’d pointed them at the LW website, or the “Sequences”, or some non-LW resource with related content (e.g., one of the various books about irrationality and cognitive biases and the like)?