Steelmanning

TagLast edit: 14 Feb 2021 7:12 UTC by Yoav Ravid

Steelmanning is the act of taking a view, or opinion, or argument and constructing the strongest possible version of it. It is the opposite of strawmanning.

External Posts:
Against Steelmanning by Thing of Things

Reversed Stupidity Is Not Intelligence

Eliezer Yudkowsky12 Dec 2007 22:14 UTC

170 points

119 comments3 min readLW link

Against Devil’s Advocacy

Eliezer Yudkowsky9 Jun 2008 4:15 UTC

49 points

60 comments6 min readLW link

A Prodigy of Refutation

Eliezer Yudkowsky18 Sep 2008 1:57 UTC

46 points

20 comments3 min readLW link

The Least Convenient Possible World

Scott Alexander14 Mar 2009 2:11 UTC

294 points

203 comments5 min readLW link

Better Disagreement

lukeprog24 Oct 2011 21:13 UTC

89 points

84 comments4 min readLW link

Please Don’t Fight the Hypothetical

TimS20 Apr 2012 14:29 UTC

40 points

65 comments2 min readLW link

Dangers of steelmanning / principle of charity

gothgirl42066616 Jan 2014 6:35 UTC

148 points

94 comments2 min readLW link

Steelmanning Inefficiency

Stuart_Armstrong3 Jul 2014 12:17 UTC

26 points

27 comments17 min readLW link

Unpopular ideas attract poor advocates: Be charitable

[deleted]15 Sep 2014 19:30 UTC

43 points

61 comments2 min readLW link

Respond to what they probably meant

Adam Zerner17 Jan 2015 23:37 UTC

19 points

42 comments3 min readLW link

How to learn soft skills

AnnaSalamon7 Feb 2015 5:22 UTC

128 points

29 comments7 min readLW link

Steelmanning the Chinese Room Argument

cousin_it6 Jul 2017 9:37 UTC

10 points

313 comments1 min readLW link

Additional arguments for NIMBY

Zvi11 Oct 2018 20:40 UTC

32 points

10 comments13 min readLW link

(thezvi.wordpress.com)

Incorrect hypotheses point to correct observations

Kaj_Sotala20 Nov 2018 21:10 UTC

160 points

37 comments4 min readLW link

(kajsotala.fi)

Good arguments against “cultural appropriation”

Tyrrell_McAllister18 Dec 2018 17:23 UTC

24 points

12 comments2 min readLW link

Steelmanning Divination

Vaniver5 Jun 2019 22:53 UTC

191 points

48 comments6 min readLW link 2 reviews

Updated Hierarchy of Disagreement

B Jacobs28 May 2020 15:57 UTC

14 points

13 comments2 min readLW link

A Practical Guide to Conflict Resolution: Comprehension

eapache13 Jun 2020 15:08 UTC

29 points

0 comments4 min readLW link

Criticism of some popular LW articles

DirectedEvolution19 Jul 2020 1:16 UTC

71 points

19 comments6 min readLW link

[Question] Please steelman the accusations of election fraud

Tim Liptrot10 Nov 2020 4:39 UTC

2 points

8 comments1 min readLW link

The Case for Logical Fallacies

Aaron Bergman8 Mar 2021 3:04 UTC

14 points

0 comments7 min readLW link

(aaronbergman.substack.com)

Defending the non-central fallacy

Matthew Barnett9 Mar 2021 21:42 UTC

133 points

38 comments6 min readLW link

The case for hypocrisy

Aaron Bergman13 May 2021 3:36 UTC

37 points

12 comments5 min readLW link

(aaronbergman.substack.com)

Steelman arguments against the idea that AGI is inevitable and will arrive soon

RomanS9 Oct 2021 6:22 UTC

20 points

12 comments5 min readLW link

The case for using the term ‘steelmanning’ instead of ‘principle of charity’

ChristianKl2 Jun 2022 19:24 UTC

26 points

7 comments3 min readLW link

A Quick Ontology of Agreement

ravedon26 Jun 2022 17:39 UTC

5 points

2 comments2 min readLW link

ITT-passing and civility are good; “charity” is bad; steelmanning is niche

Rob Bensinger5 Jul 2022 0:15 UTC

161 points

36 comments6 min readLW link 1 review

Straw-Steelmanning

Chris van Merwijk13 Jul 2022 5:48 UTC

30 points

2 comments1 min readLW link

Inward and outward steelmanning

Q Home14 Jul 2022 23:32 UTC

13 points

6 comments18 min readLW link

Method of statements: an alternative to taboo

Q Home16 Nov 2022 10:57 UTC

7 points

0 comments41 min readLW link

In favor of steelmanning

jp1 May 2023 17:12 UTC

36 points

6 comments1 min readLW link

Listen For What You Don’t Hear: The Case for Contrarianism

Yashvardhan Sharma14 Aug 2023 2:53 UTC

3 points

1 comment5 min readLW link

Steelmanning The Devil

Screwtape21 Nov 2023 7:28 UTC

10 points

0 comments5 min readLW link

On the Contrary, Steelmanning Is Normal; ITT-Passing Is Niche

Zack_M_Davis9 Jan 2024 23:12 UTC

39 points

31 comments4 min readLW link

Steelmanning as an especially insidious form of strawmanning

Cornelius Dybdahl11 Mar 2024 2:25 UTC

10 points

13 comments5 min readLW link

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