I myself have just joined Less Wrong and am working to figure out what gets upvoted and what doesn’t, so I feel a sense of camaraderie with you.
But still, new guy to newish guy, here’s why I was unimpressed with your post: you didn’t actually offer anything you’ve done to overcome akrasia. You just outlined that akrasia is a problem, and something that can be overcome, something that LW already knows well. I like how you drew an analogy to your own life, but I’m not really honestly interested in what your specific struggles are unless you’re either (a) asking for help, or (b) telling me what you’ve done to overcome them.
I also agree with others here that you’ve plugged in a lot of LW “buzzwords” (Tsuyoku Naritai, Litany of Tarski, wanting to save the world, etc.), which are all in themselves admirable ideas, but in this post, only loosely connected to your main idea. I doubt you did this intentionally, but it looks like you’re just name-dropping terms to gain favor. Including them all is doing too much at once.
I think that you should complete your journey a little bit, and when you actually have some solutions to contribute, post them. I’ll look forward to it.
Also, don’t live by karma—I think it’s a good idea to sacrifice karma in order to learn about what works. Ensuing discussions in the spiral of downvotes can still tell you what you’ve done wrong, allowing you to fix yourself to a point where you can have good karma. (I also don’t think karma is a good terminal value anyway.)
I hope this isn’t harsh and helps a little bit. I don’t have that much other advice to give (being new myself), but I do hope you do well in your future postings.
I myself have just joined Less Wrong and am working to figure out what gets upvoted and what doesn’t, so I feel a sense of camaraderie with you.
But still, new guy to newish guy, here’s why I was unimpressed with your post: you didn’t actually offer anything you’ve done to overcome akrasia. You just outlined that akrasia is a problem, and something that can be overcome, something that LW already knows well. I like how you drew an analogy to your own life, but I’m not really honestly interested in what your specific struggles are unless you’re either (a) asking for help, or (b) telling me what you’ve done to overcome them.
I also agree with others here that you’ve plugged in a lot of LW “buzzwords” (Tsuyoku Naritai, Litany of Tarski, wanting to save the world, etc.), which are all in themselves admirable ideas, but in this post, only loosely connected to your main idea. I doubt you did this intentionally, but it looks like you’re just name-dropping terms to gain favor. Including them all is doing too much at once.
I think that you should complete your journey a little bit, and when you actually have some solutions to contribute, post them. I’ll look forward to it.
Also, don’t live by karma—I think it’s a good idea to sacrifice karma in order to learn about what works. Ensuing discussions in the spiral of downvotes can still tell you what you’ve done wrong, allowing you to fix yourself to a point where you can have good karma. (I also don’t think karma is a good terminal value anyway.)
I hope this isn’t harsh and helps a little bit. I don’t have that much other advice to give (being new myself), but I do hope you do well in your future postings.