Preface

Hello LessWrong World !

Welcome to my personal regular writing challenge on LessWrong!

This post serves as a Preface to the start of a personal blogging experience I’m very excited (synonym of apprehension) to start. Inspired by Eliezer Yudkowsky similar challenge, this is an attempt to freely write and form a habit of writing down on a public platform.

I’m looking forward to think about both the form and the aim of this writing experience.

As to the specifics, the underlying goal of this challenge is to encourage myself to engage in the practice of clear and effective communication of ideas, and as a byproduct, deep dive into technical subjects related to my center of interests.

As we strive to understand the world as best as we can, it is not enough to simply read about good ideas : you must share them ! I must also be able to communicate them effectively, structurally to others. This is a skill that I aim to practice and improve; this writing challenge is an opportunity to do just that.

Each week, I will provide myself a topic for me to write about in a given timeframe. The range of topics and, my center of interest per se, range from biosciences to cinematography, and are a challenge to review existing informations about a topic.

Furthermore, I believe it’s important to point out that a blog article, written following scientific paper guidelines, could be considered a self-published paper rather than a mere blog article.

Scientific paper guidelines involve a specific format, such as an abstract, introduction, methods, results, and discussion sections, and a rigorous review process to ensure the quality and accuracy of the research presented. As a general outline, following those specific set of guidelines would be considered a scholarly work, regardless of the fact that it was published on a blog or in the margin of your library book.

It’s worth noting that without peer-review, there is no credible way of quantifying your writings, as the peer-review process is meant to ensure the quality and accuracy of the research. (link to my next writing about quantifying researchers)

Nobody likes studying, but everyone wants to be smarter. Learning, getting insights and understanding academic subject are immensely rewarding. However, my real motivation is to show people that researching faster is possible and that it can be fun at the same time.
Without a clear sense of direction or purpose, it can be difficult to stay engaged in learning, generally speaking. Against common knowledge, very few remain students all of their life’s.

Thus, regardless of my closeted writer habits, I’m looking forward to uncover why LessWrong is a good place to start writing publicly.

Godspeed :)