I would think to approach this by figuring something like the Shapley value of the involved parties, by answering the questions “for a given amount of funding, how many people would have been willing to provide this funding if necessary” and “given an amount of funding, how many people would have been willing and able to do the work of the Lightcone crew to produce similar output.”
I don’t know much about how Lightcone operates, but my instinct is that the people are difficult to replace, because I don’t see many other very similar projects to Lighthaven and LW, and that the funding seems somewhat replaceable (for example I would be willing to donate much more than I actually did if I thought there should be less other money available.) So probably the employees should be getting the majority of the credit.
I don’t understand. LessWrong is a discussion forum, there are many discussion forums. LightHaven is a conference center, there are many conference centers. There are lots of similar projects. I’m confident that Lightcone provides value, and plan to donate, but I don’t understand this frame.
I have been to lots of conferences at lots of kinds of conference centers and Lighthaven seems very unusual:
The space has been extensively and well designed to be comfortable and well suited to the activities.
The food/drink/snack situation is dramatically superior.
The on-site accommodations are extremely convenient.
I think it’s great that rationalist conferences have this extremely attractive space to use that actively makes people want to come, rather than if they were in like, a random hotel or office campus.
As for LW, I would say something sort of similar:
The website and feature set is now dramatically superior to e.g. Discourse or PHPBB.
It’s operated by people who spend lots of time trying to figure out new adjustments that make it better, including ones that nobody else is doing, like splitting out karma and agree voting, and cultivating the best old posts.
Partially as a result, the quality of the discussion is basically off the charts for a free general-interest public forum.
In both cases it seems like I don’t see other groups trying to max out the quality level in these ways, and my best guess for why is that there is no other group who is equally capable, has a similarly strong vision of what would be a good thing to create, and wants to spend the effort to do it.
Thanks for explaining. I now understand you to mean that LessWrong and Lighthaven are dramatically superior to the alternatives, in several ways. You don’t see other groups trying to max out the quality level in the same ways. Other projects may be similar in type, but they are dissimilar in results.
To clarify on my own side, when I say that there are lots of similar projects to Lighthaven, I mean that many people have tried to make conference spaces that are comfortable and well-designed, with great food and convenient on-site accommodation. Similarly, when I say that there are lots of similar projects to LessWrong, I mean that there are many forums with a similar overall design and moderation approach. I wasn’t trying to say that the end results are similar in terms of quality. These are matters of taste, anyway.
I would think to approach this by figuring something like the Shapley value of the involved parties, by answering the questions “for a given amount of funding, how many people would have been willing to provide this funding if necessary” and “given an amount of funding, how many people would have been willing and able to do the work of the Lightcone crew to produce similar output.”
I don’t know much about how Lightcone operates, but my instinct is that the people are difficult to replace, because I don’t see many other very similar projects to Lighthaven and LW, and that the funding seems somewhat replaceable (for example I would be willing to donate much more than I actually did if I thought there should be less other money available.) So probably the employees should be getting the majority of the credit.
I don’t understand. LessWrong is a discussion forum, there are many discussion forums. LightHaven is a conference center, there are many conference centers. There are lots of similar projects. I’m confident that Lightcone provides value, and plan to donate, but I don’t understand this frame.
I have been to lots of conferences at lots of kinds of conference centers and Lighthaven seems very unusual:
The space has been extensively and well designed to be comfortable and well suited to the activities.
The food/drink/snack situation is dramatically superior.
The on-site accommodations are extremely convenient.
I think it’s great that rationalist conferences have this extremely attractive space to use that actively makes people want to come, rather than if they were in like, a random hotel or office campus.
As for LW, I would say something sort of similar:
The website and feature set is now dramatically superior to e.g. Discourse or PHPBB.
It’s operated by people who spend lots of time trying to figure out new adjustments that make it better, including ones that nobody else is doing, like splitting out karma and agree voting, and cultivating the best old posts.
Partially as a result, the quality of the discussion is basically off the charts for a free general-interest public forum.
In both cases it seems like I don’t see other groups trying to max out the quality level in these ways, and my best guess for why is that there is no other group who is equally capable, has a similarly strong vision of what would be a good thing to create, and wants to spend the effort to do it.
Thanks for explaining. I now understand you to mean that LessWrong and Lighthaven are dramatically superior to the alternatives, in several ways. You don’t see other groups trying to max out the quality level in the same ways. Other projects may be similar in type, but they are dissimilar in results.
To clarify on my own side, when I say that there are lots of similar projects to Lighthaven, I mean that many people have tried to make conference spaces that are comfortable and well-designed, with great food and convenient on-site accommodation. Similarly, when I say that there are lots of similar projects to LessWrong, I mean that there are many forums with a similar overall design and moderation approach. I wasn’t trying to say that the end results are similar in terms of quality. These are matters of taste, anyway.
Sorry for the misunderstanding.