I’m not sure LW understands why it succeeded in the early days. There’s a lot of focus on important ideas like AI risk, but they don’t seem to be the main reason. Consider this: two of the most popular LW authors, Eliezer and Scott, also write fiction and blog posts on random topics, and always get tons of comments no matter what they write about. It’s almost as if people are attracted to writing style, and then rationalize that as newfound interest in the topic! To be fair, our community has made some attempts at developing writing style (/r/rational), but it seems half-hearted and mostly driven by attention. Hardly anyone seems interested in writing for its own sake.
As it happens, your writing style is pretty enjoyable: I find myself reading your posts even if I don’t care much about the topic—in this case, popularity hacking. So maybe you don’t have to think so much about popularity hacking? Just keep writing well, and the problem will solve itself.
(I could try to guess what makes a writing style enjoyable, but since my own style is flawed in many ways, that wouldn’t be right. I’ve been meaning to work on my writing since forever, but there always seems to be something more important...)
I’m not sure LW understands why it succeeded in the early days. There’s a lot of focus on important ideas like AI risk, but they don’t seem to be the main reason. Consider this: two of the most popular LW authors, Eliezer and Scott, also write fiction and blog posts on random topics, and always get tons of comments no matter what they write about. It’s almost as if people are attracted to writing style, and then rationalize that as newfound interest in the topic! To be fair, our community has made some attempts at developing writing style (/r/rational), but it seems half-hearted and mostly driven by attention. Hardly anyone seems interested in writing for its own sake.
As it happens, your writing style is pretty enjoyable: I find myself reading your posts even if I don’t care much about the topic—in this case, popularity hacking. So maybe you don’t have to think so much about popularity hacking? Just keep writing well, and the problem will solve itself.
(I could try to guess what makes a writing style enjoyable, but since my own style is flawed in many ways, that wouldn’t be right. I’ve been meaning to work on my writing since forever, but there always seems to be something more important...)
Thanks, I’m very flattered!