I browse this newsletter occasionally via LW; I am not subscribed by email. I am not so far seriously involved in AI research, and I don’t wind up understanding most of it in detail, but I have a longer-term interest in such issues, and I want to keep a fraction of a bird’s eye on the state of the field if possible, so that if I start in on deeper such activities a few years from now, I can re-skim the archives and try to catch up.
Speculative followup: seeing a few other people say similar things here and contrasting it with what seems to have been implied in the retrospective itself makes me guess there’s a seriousness split between LW and email “subscribers”. Does the former have passersby dominating the reader set (especially since it’ll be presented to people who are on LW for some other reason), whereas anyone who cares more deeply and specifically will primarily consume the newsletter by email?
Oh, I think there are a lot of email subscribers who skim/passively consume the newsletter. I didn’t focus very much on them in the retrospective because I don’t think I’m adding that much value to them.
It might be true that all of the people who read it thoroughly are subscribed by email, I’m not sure. It’s hard to tell because I expect skimmers far outnumber thorough readers, so seeing a few skimmers via the comments is not strong evidence that there aren’t thorough readers.
I browse this newsletter occasionally via LW; I am not subscribed by email. I am not so far seriously involved in AI research, and I don’t wind up understanding most of it in detail, but I have a longer-term interest in such issues, and I want to keep a fraction of a bird’s eye on the state of the field if possible, so that if I start in on deeper such activities a few years from now, I can re-skim the archives and try to catch up.
Speculative followup: seeing a few other people say similar things here and contrasting it with what seems to have been implied in the retrospective itself makes me guess there’s a seriousness split between LW and email “subscribers”. Does the former have passersby dominating the reader set (especially since it’ll be presented to people who are on LW for some other reason), whereas anyone who cares more deeply and specifically will primarily consume the newsletter by email?
Oh, I think there are a lot of email subscribers who skim/passively consume the newsletter. I didn’t focus very much on them in the retrospective because I don’t think I’m adding that much value to them.
It might be true that all of the people who read it thoroughly are subscribed by email, I’m not sure. It’s hard to tell because I expect skimmers far outnumber thorough readers, so seeing a few skimmers via the comments is not strong evidence that there aren’t thorough readers.