These posts about sabbaths are interesting, but I do wonder whether such a large fraction of Less Wrong posts need to be on that single topic.
(I also find myself thinking, uncharitably, “What an extraordinary coincidence that meditation on the needs of people in modern society should just happen to land on almost exactly the traditional practices of the religion in which these people were brought up”. Much as I would if there were four or five LW posts from people brought up Catholic arguing that formalized wine-drinking once a week is particularly beneficial, or from people brought up Muslim telling us all about the health benefits of going down on one’s knees five times a day. This is unfair for several reasons, but it seems worth noting that the reaction is there and I bet I’m not alone in having it. I’d suggest that it might be interesting to read Zvi’s or Benquo’s thoughts on what other traditional Jewish practices, if any, turn out to be super-valuable and why the others, if any, don’t, except that again it seems like maybe the density of this sort of material is already high enough.)
Maybe this sort of dynamic where one post on a single topic begets another and another and another is inevitable, and despite my misgivings perhaps it’s actually a good thing. Would LW benefit from having some explicit way of identifying multiple posts as part of a single discussion, and showing that discussion as a unit in lists of posts? This might be useful for things like the Sequences and Conor’s one-a-day-for-a-month thing, though for me, at least, neither of those triggers the same “do we really need another of these already?” feeling.
I certainly have varied thoughts on other Jewish practices, the same way I showed varied thoughts on traditional Sabbath practices, but no current plans to explore that. Perhaps when another holiday rolls around. I did write a Rationalist Haggadah a few years back that the NYC Less Wrong group uses every year. I do not think that landing on a traditional practice is a coincidence—it’s time tested design, but also I explicitly say that you benefit from the resonance and ease of explanation and justification inherent in established tradition. I then use the framework to build rules to deal with modern issues.
I’d be quite interested in seeing similar cases made for practices from other traditions and religions. I’m not afraid to steal what’s good. I do think that Judaism has a strong track record of producing a lot rationalists, so Jewish tradition is likely to be unusually rich in ideas that fit with our needs. And of course, you find things where you look.
I like the idea of linking posts as part of a discussion; for now I made sure they linked to each other via links. Eventually sequences are part of the plan but I agree with not prioritizing that over other things right now. I do think that it’s actually good to have discussions in bursts, so things can develop and go deeper, and there should be an ebb and flow from week to week and month to month.
These posts about sabbaths are interesting, but I do wonder whether such a large fraction of Less Wrong posts need to be on that single topic.
(I also find myself thinking, uncharitably, “What an extraordinary coincidence that meditation on the needs of people in modern society should just happen to land on almost exactly the traditional practices of the religion in which these people were brought up”. Much as I would if there were four or five LW posts from people brought up Catholic arguing that formalized wine-drinking once a week is particularly beneficial, or from people brought up Muslim telling us all about the health benefits of going down on one’s knees five times a day. This is unfair for several reasons, but it seems worth noting that the reaction is there and I bet I’m not alone in having it. I’d suggest that it might be interesting to read Zvi’s or Benquo’s thoughts on what other traditional Jewish practices, if any, turn out to be super-valuable and why the others, if any, don’t, except that again it seems like maybe the density of this sort of material is already high enough.)
Maybe this sort of dynamic where one post on a single topic begets another and another and another is inevitable, and despite my misgivings perhaps it’s actually a good thing. Would LW benefit from having some explicit way of identifying multiple posts as part of a single discussion, and showing that discussion as a unit in lists of posts? This might be useful for things like the Sequences and Conor’s one-a-day-for-a-month thing, though for me, at least, neither of those triggers the same “do we really need another of these already?” feeling.
I certainly have varied thoughts on other Jewish practices, the same way I showed varied thoughts on traditional Sabbath practices, but no current plans to explore that. Perhaps when another holiday rolls around. I did write a Rationalist Haggadah a few years back that the NYC Less Wrong group uses every year. I do not think that landing on a traditional practice is a coincidence—it’s time tested design, but also I explicitly say that you benefit from the resonance and ease of explanation and justification inherent in established tradition. I then use the framework to build rules to deal with modern issues.
I’d be quite interested in seeing similar cases made for practices from other traditions and religions. I’m not afraid to steal what’s good. I do think that Judaism has a strong track record of producing a lot rationalists, so Jewish tradition is likely to be unusually rich in ideas that fit with our needs. And of course, you find things where you look.
I like the idea of linking posts as part of a discussion; for now I made sure they linked to each other via links. Eventually sequences are part of the plan but I agree with not prioritizing that over other things right now. I do think that it’s actually good to have discussions in bursts, so things can develop and go deeper, and there should be an ebb and flow from week to week and month to month.
You may or may not know there’s a blog called the Ancient Wisdom Project which tries out practices from various religions for a month at a time.