Duncan’s post is actually quite insightful. The core point is an integration of the guess-vs-ask culture dichotomy such that we have a more accurate model of what is going on (one that involves tracking the social context and implications of your actions on the environment and the other people, and the other people’s actions, and so on).
I also believe that your attempts at posting good-faith critiques in the comments of most LW posts are costlier to you and the community you care about, than they are beneficial. You are swimming upstream and that is unsustainable. Your efforts are best spent elsewhere.
your attempts at posting good-faith critiques in the comments of most LW posts are costlier to [...] the community you care about, than they are beneficial.
Opportunity costs. There’s a lot more useful things one can do, such as actually work on projects that reduce existential risk, or run one’s own blog, or build a following on social media such as X to influence the zeitgeist.
I consider the banning of Said as a canary in the coal mine. I do not think it is worth the effort for people to call out non-alignment posts they consider confused, badly written, or just downright dumb.
(Alignment posts are an exception, mainly because I see people like John Wentworth and Steven Byrnes write really good counter-argument comments, and there’s little to no drama or pushback by the post authors when it comes to such highly technical posts.)
I also believe that your attempts at posting good-faith critiques in the comments of most LW posts are costlier to you and the community you care about, than they are beneficial. You are swimming upstream and that is unsustainable. Your efforts are best spent elsewhere.
Thanks a lot for reposting this.
Duncan’s post is actually quite insightful. The core point is an integration of the guess-vs-ask culture dichotomy such that we have a more accurate model of what is going on (one that involves tracking the social context and implications of your actions on the environment and the other people, and the other people’s actions, and so on).
I also believe that your attempts at posting good-faith critiques in the comments of most LW posts are costlier to you and the community you care about, than they are beneficial. You are swimming upstream and that is unsustainable. Your efforts are best spent elsewhere.
Why? What are the costs to the community?
Opportunity costs. There’s a lot more useful things one can do, such as actually work on projects that reduce existential risk, or run one’s own blog, or build a following on social media such as X to influence the zeitgeist.
Followup question: you thought criticism was useful in April 2023. What changed your mind?
I consider the banning of Said as a canary in the coal mine. I do not think it is worth the effort for people to call out non-alignment posts they consider confused, badly written, or just downright dumb.
(Alignment posts are an exception, mainly because I see people like John Wentworth and Steven Byrnes write really good counter-argument comments, and there’s little to no drama or pushback by the post authors when it comes to such highly technical posts.)
I swim upstream for the exercise ;)