The beginning of this post (the list of concrete, powerful, real/realistic, and avoidable cases of irrationality in action), is probably the best introduction to x-rationality I’ve read yet. I can easily imagine it hooking lots of potential readers that our previous attempts at introduction (our home page, the “welcome to LW” posts, etc) wouldn’t.
In fact, I’d nominate some version of that text as our new home page text, perhaps just changing out the last couple sentences to something that encompasses more of LW in general (rather than cogsci specifically). I mean this as a serious actionable suggestion.
For the sake of constructive feedback though, I thought that much of the rest of the article was probably too intense (as measured in density of unfamiliar terms and detailed concepts) for newcomers. It sort of changes from “Introduction for rationality beginners” to “Brief but somewhat technical summary for experienced LWers”. So it could be more effective if targeted more narrowly.
Yeah, this post is still far more technical than would be appropriate for, say, a magazine or webzine. But at eases into technicality a bit gradually… :)
I think the intensity of the second half of this article may be compensated by the sheer amount of footnotes and references. I mean, that much bibliographic work amounts to a quite compelling argument from authority¹. Someone who dozes out and scrolls fast will notice this, and may think that so much work is worth the effort to try and read.
The beginning of this post (the list of concrete, powerful, real/realistic, and avoidable cases of irrationality in action), is probably the best introduction to x-rationality I’ve read yet. I can easily imagine it hooking lots of potential readers that our previous attempts at introduction (our home page, the “welcome to LW” posts, etc) wouldn’t.
In fact, I’d nominate some version of that text as our new home page text, perhaps just changing out the last couple sentences to something that encompasses more of LW in general (rather than cogsci specifically). I mean this as a serious actionable suggestion.
For the sake of constructive feedback though, I thought that much of the rest of the article was probably too intense (as measured in density of unfamiliar terms and detailed concepts) for newcomers. It sort of changes from “Introduction for rationality beginners” to “Brief but somewhat technical summary for experienced LWers”. So it could be more effective if targeted more narrowly.
Yeah, this post is still far more technical than would be appropriate for, say, a magazine or webzine. But at eases into technicality a bit gradually… :)
Suggested on the homepage talk page.
I think the intensity of the second half of this article may be compensated by the sheer amount of footnotes and references. I mean, that much bibliographic work amounts to a quite compelling argument from authority¹. Someone who dozes out and scrolls fast will notice this, and may think that so much work is worth the effort to try and read.
1: Which isn’t a fallacy until you know more about the subject. And I trust lukeprog with the relevance and accuracy of his bibliographic work.