Generally I think of self-critique as one of the best paths toward becoming stronger and more correct. If the critique itself isn’t that good, then helping to refine it does actually help the seeker to make better use of the critique.
I certainly prefer self-critique over other-critique, and really do NOT want outgroup-critique to be part of our normal behaviors. I wouldn’t want to give up more expository or theoretically exploratory posts, but I don’t think they’re exclusive.
With downvoting disabled, we have lost one channel to guide the mix of posts we accept, but it was always a relatively coarse tool. Just failing to upvote and not commenting on posts that don’t interest you is likely almost as effective.
When you put it explicitly, it does seem like having more channels to see where you’re erring (which self-critique can do) can be helpful for improvement.
I’ve recently noticed that LW seems to have a general culture of being quite accepting of self-critique, even if the critique itself isn’t that good.
I’m wondering if other people have noticed this and if this is what we’d want?
(we seem to be signal boosting critiques more than just normal good content)
Generally I think of self-critique as one of the best paths toward becoming stronger and more correct. If the critique itself isn’t that good, then helping to refine it does actually help the seeker to make better use of the critique.
I certainly prefer self-critique over other-critique, and really do NOT want outgroup-critique to be part of our normal behaviors. I wouldn’t want to give up more expository or theoretically exploratory posts, but I don’t think they’re exclusive.
With downvoting disabled, we have lost one channel to guide the mix of posts we accept, but it was always a relatively coarse tool. Just failing to upvote and not commenting on posts that don’t interest you is likely almost as effective.
Great; thanks for your thoughts on this.
When you put it explicitly, it does seem like having more channels to see where you’re erring (which self-critique can do) can be helpful for improvement.