You mention that the essays here aren’t in your top most persuasive. I will just note that an explicit goal of this forum is that we are asked to write to inform, not to persuade. I think that’s really critical in maintaining a rationalist and a pleasant environment.
Just a random note. Thanks for the comparative analysis.
Contra “inform, not persuade”, I remember reading Luke Muehlhauser’s old post Rhetoric for the Good:
The topics of rationality and existential risk reduction need their own Richard Dawkins. Their own Darwin. Their own Voltaire.
Rhetoric moves minds.
Students and masochists aside, people read only what is exciting. So: Want to make an impact? Be exciting. You must be heard before you can turn heads in the right direction.
My sense is that Eliezer also consciously wrote persuasively as well; as a young LW lurker a decade ago it was that persuasiveness that kept me coming back.
I’m hence somewhat surprised to see “an explicit goal of this forum is that we are asked to write to inform, not to persuade” quite highly upvoted and agreed with. I wonder what changed, or whether my initial perception was just wrong to begin with.
You mention that the essays here aren’t in your top most persuasive. I will just note that an explicit goal of this forum is that we are asked to write to inform, not to persuade. I think that’s really critical in maintaining a rationalist and a pleasant environment.
Quite a few writers have not gotten the memo then, if that is the consensus.
You mention that the essays here aren’t in your top most persuasive. I will just note that an explicit goal of this forum is that we are asked to write to inform, not to persuade. I think that’s really critical in maintaining a rationalist and a pleasant environment.
Just a random note. Thanks for the comparative analysis.
Contra “inform, not persuade”, I remember reading Luke Muehlhauser’s old post Rhetoric for the Good:
My sense is that Eliezer also consciously wrote persuasively as well; as a young LW lurker a decade ago it was that persuasiveness that kept me coming back.
I’m hence somewhat surprised to see “an explicit goal of this forum is that we are asked to write to inform, not to persuade” quite highly upvoted and agreed with. I wonder what changed, or whether my initial perception was just wrong to begin with.
I think you’re talking about outward-facing writing. I mean stuff meant to recruit new rationalists, not stuff directed at rationalists.
Also, there’s no conflict between being exciting and writing to inform.
Quite a few writers have not gotten the memo then, if that is the consensus.