In hindsight, I see I wrote very unclearly.. It sounds like I recommended “basic facts” as a separate category of Open Discussion topics. You correctly point out the serious issues with assuming “basic” means “safe”. It does not. It really, really does not!
Certainly not what I meant to say. I meant we (the lesswrong community) should actively discuss basic facts *within* the good discussion topics.
I’ve actually had several people say they liked the Concrete Examples section, but that they wish I’d said more that would help them recreate the thought-process.
Unfortunately, these were old thoughts for me. The logic behind a lot of them feels… “self-evident” or “obvious” to me, or something? Which makes me a worse teacher, because I’m a little blind to what it is about them that isn’t landing.
I’d need to understand what people were seeing or missing, to be able to offer helpful guidance around it. And… nobody commented.
(My rant on basic knowledge was a partial-attempt on my part, to crack open my logic for one of these.)
Edit: I added my core heuristic to the Concrete Examples thread
Thank you for your reply! I’m very pleased.
In hindsight, I see I wrote very unclearly.. It sounds like I recommended “basic facts” as a separate category of Open Discussion topics. You correctly point out the serious issues with assuming “basic” means “safe”. It does not. It really, really does not!
Certainly not what I meant to say. I meant we (the lesswrong community) should actively discuss basic facts *within* the good discussion topics.
Ah! Thanks for the clarification.
I’ve actually had several people say they liked the Concrete Examples section, but that they wish I’d said more that would help them recreate the thought-process.
Unfortunately, these were old thoughts for me. The logic behind a lot of them feels… “self-evident” or “obvious” to me, or something? Which makes me a worse teacher, because I’m a little blind to what it is about them that isn’t landing.
I’d need to understand what people were seeing or missing, to be able to offer helpful guidance around it. And… nobody commented.
(My rant on basic knowledge was a partial-attempt on my part, to crack open my logic for one of these.)
Edit: I added my core heuristic to the Concrete Examples thread