Should I blog on LessWrong?
This is my first post here. I would like feedback on my decision of signing up to LessWrong with the idea of writing here occasionally. I explain my reasoning below, but first, for context, here is a brief intro about me:
I am not sure if I consider myself a rationalist or part of the rationality community, but I enjoy scrolling through LW and reading some posts. I do consider myself part of the Effective Altruism community and have been involved in it for over two years. I’m a graduate student in one of the 80,000 Hours priority cause areas and my aim is to be a researcher, perhaps also involved with policy, in such area.
I have a website where I used to blog about anything I found interesting. Since I applied to graduate school, it has become a professional/academic website (I removed most of my existing posts) and I intend to keep it that way (with occasional academic posts). I enjoy writing and I recognize it’s a very useful skill to develop. However, I’m concerned that having several posts on my professional website about EA or Rationality would cause a negative impression on academics or future employers who visit my website.
I have not included my surname on my LW username for the same reasons (my LW user does not show up on a google search of my full name). I do not want complete anonymity: I expect that most of the people who know me will identify me as the person behind this LW profile and that those reading this LW profile may find my website. I’m okay with both.
Does my reasoning seem reasonable? A few final thoughts:
I expect I would cross-post some posts from here on my blog, and vice-versa.
I have also created a profile on the EA Forum with the same username (https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/users/maria_a) to use in a similar fashion (but I expect to post on LW more frequently due to its broader content scope).
I can always link to my LW account on the first page of my website should I want to (effectively becoming fully public), and even re-posting there (some of) my LW posts.
Welcome! You don’t have to be a “rationalist” to write here.
In my personal experience, writing on Less Wrong has been a boost to my professional network. It has had a tremendously positive impact on my writing quality. The downsides are so low they are unmeasurable. However, I am not a professional academic. Your experience may differ.
When I say “downsides” I’m referring to professional downsides with concrete real-world consequences. It took me a while to develop thick skin but if you’re a blogger and a researcher already then nitpicky criticism in the comments may be a non-issue for you.
I think writing under a pseudonym is a great idea. I do it myself, even though my real-world identity is not truly secret. I think using a pseudonym helps me maximize upside while minimizing downside. Using your real given name but no surname puts you in good company; Scott Alexander does the same.
The bar for experimenting on things is low. Give it a shot! Once you start experimenting with posts you’ll be in a better position to decide whether you want to continue.
If anonymity is the concern, you can always use a full pseudonym. I suspect pretty strongly that it isn’t actually a big deal for future employers though. I am a programmer and in my experience interviewing, interviewers spend very little effort actually digging into this stuff. I personally have a long history of blog posts, YouTube videos, a podcast, and two startups that I founded, plus a bunch of stuff on various internet forums, but very, very few interviewers have actually looked at any of it. If anything it’s just skimming a blog post or two. Academia is different of course, and isn’t something I’m familiar with, but my guess is that it is relatively similar.
If I understand it correctly, you have a professional blog where you self-censor for professional reasons. This would be your second blog. What is the chance that you would really want to write something that would fit in neither of these blogs? I mean, not just something personal and silly (that would be accepted here, assuming it is not the only kind of content you would ever produce), but something actively against the LW norms, such as strongly political content, or your thoughts about how Jesus is the actual truth and the way.
(Alternatively, is there an audience that hates LW, and you would want to write something for them?)
What I am asking is, whether it is likely that tomorrow you will need a third blog. If the chance is negligible, go ahead, start blogging here, and see what happens. Worst case, you can start your own blog later and move your LW articles there. The advantage is that you can start blogging immediately with no extra work.
However, if the chance of needing the third blog is high, then you might instead start a new independent blog, and crosspost some of its articles to LW. (There is some method to import articles from other blogs automatically, though I am not familiar with technical details.) Actually, you might crosspost selected articles from both your blogs.
But you can also start blogging here… and if a need for a third blog arises later, then start it later.
By the way, it is not just about articles, but also about comments and moderation. Are you okay with your readers having to create an LW account if they want to comment on your articles? Are you okay with the LW audience voting on your commenters? Some people feel uncomfortable writing on LW; this might prevent them from replying to your articles.
My advice would be to just start posting and see what reactions you get. I’d try going through a few different kinds of posts as people may be more receptive to some than others. I have to admit though that it can be a tough crowd sometimes, so keep that in mind.
Maybe you repost some of your existing posts on your blog here to see how they are received?
There is virtually no information here that would allow us to infer how useful your posts might be. So I have no idea.
If you do post, I would suggest limiting posts that mostly talk about yourself and contain little information that is of general interest. I suggest focusing on the question “how can I add value to others”.
Consider link posting a choice few of your existing material to see what the reaction is.
I actually disagree with this, and so does the LW team. From the FAQ:
I rarely write about myself but when I do the posts tend to be better received than usual.