I hear a lot of scorn for the rationalist style where you caveat every sentence with “I think” or the like.
I think e.g. Eliezer (in the sequences) and Scott Alexander don’t hedge a lot, so this doesn’t necessarily seem like a rationalist style. I do it a lot though, but I fairly sure it makes readability worse.
A general tip when editing pieces is that if you ctrl+f for “I think” and you cut out 90-95% of them, it makes the piece better. The (respected) reader knows that everything you write is what you think, and a good piece should make the hedging explicit for a claim that needs deeper consideration—not every claim.
What about readers you don’t respect? Well, who cares what they think.
The reader knows that, certainly. But they don’t know that you know that; that’s why you have to clarify that you do. (And yes, you have to! Most people in fact do not know that their opinions aren’t fact).
I think e.g. Eliezer (in the sequences) and Scott Alexander don’t hedge a lot, so this doesn’t necessarily seem like a rationalist style. I do it a lot though, but I fairly sure it makes readability worse.
A general tip when editing pieces is that if you ctrl+f for “I think” and you cut out 90-95% of them, it makes the piece better. The (respected) reader knows that everything you write is what you think, and a good piece should make the hedging explicit for a claim that needs deeper consideration—not every claim.
What about readers you don’t respect? Well, who cares what they think.
The reader knows that, certainly. But they don’t know that you know that; that’s why you have to clarify that you do. (And yes, you have to! Most people in fact do not know that their opinions aren’t fact).