Given the communities initial heavy interest in the heuristic & biases research, I am amused that there is no explicit mention of the sunk cost policy. Seriously, watch out for that.
My opinion is that revitalizing the community is very likely to fail, and I am neutral on whether it’s worth to try anyways by current prominent rationalists. A lot of people are suggesting to restore the website with a more centralized structure. It should be obvious the result won’t work the same as the old Less Wrong.
Finally, a reminder on Less Wrong history, which suggests that we lost more than a group of high-quality posters: Less Wrong wasn’t always a polyamory hub. It became that way because there was a group of people who seriously believed they could improve the way they think, a few noticed they didn’t have any good reason to be monogamous, set out to convince the others, and succeeded. Do you think a change of that scale will ever happen in the future of the rationalist community?
It became that way because there was a group of people who seriously believed they could improve the way they think, a few noticed they didn’t have any good reason to be monogamous, set out to convince the others, and succeeded.
I don’t buy that account of the history as being complete. Many people in the rationality community have contact with other communities that also have a higher prevalence of polyamory. The vegan community also has a higher share of polygamous people.
Perhaps I should not have used such sensationalist language. I admit I don’t know the whole story, and that more details are likely to find many nonrational reasons the change occurs. Still, I suspect rational persuasion did play a role, if not a complete one. Anecdotally, the Less Wrong discussion changed my opinion of polyamory from “haven’t really thought about it that much” to “sounds plausible but I haven’t tried it”.
In any case, if your memory of that section of Less Wrong history contributes positively to your nostalgia, it’s worth reconsidering the chance events like that will ever happen again.
Given the communities initial heavy interest in the heuristic & biases research, I am amused that there is no explicit mention of the sunk cost policy. Seriously, watch out for that.
My opinion is that revitalizing the community is very likely to fail, and I am neutral on whether it’s worth to try anyways by current prominent rationalists. A lot of people are suggesting to restore the website with a more centralized structure. It should be obvious the result won’t work the same as the old Less Wrong.
Finally, a reminder on Less Wrong history, which suggests that we lost more than a group of high-quality posters: Less Wrong wasn’t always a polyamory hub. It became that way because there was a group of people who seriously believed they could improve the way they think, a few noticed they didn’t have any good reason to be monogamous, set out to convince the others, and succeeded. Do you think a change of that scale will ever happen in the future of the rationalist community?
I don’t buy that account of the history as being complete. Many people in the rationality community have contact with other communities that also have a higher prevalence of polyamory. The vegan community also has a higher share of polygamous people.
Perhaps I should not have used such sensationalist language. I admit I don’t know the whole story, and that more details are likely to find many nonrational reasons the change occurs. Still, I suspect rational persuasion did play a role, if not a complete one. Anecdotally, the Less Wrong discussion changed my opinion of polyamory from “haven’t really thought about it that much” to “sounds plausible but I haven’t tried it”.
In any case, if your memory of that section of Less Wrong history contributes positively to your nostalgia, it’s worth reconsidering the chance events like that will ever happen again.