Thoughts on RyanCarey’s problems list, point by point:
Until we fix the following problems, our efforts to attract writers will be pushing uphill against a strong incentive gradient:
Not sure all of them are “problems”, exactly. I agree that incentive gradients matter, though.
Comments on the specific “problems”:
1 Posts on LessWrong are far less aesthetically pleasing than is now possible with modern web design, such as on Medium. The design is also slightly worse than on the EA Forum and SSC.
Insofar as 1 is true, it seems like a genuine and simple bug that is probably worth fixing. Matt Graves is I believe the person to talk to if one has ideas or $ to contribute to this. (Or the Arbital crew, insofar as they’re taking suggestions.)
2 Posts on LessWrong are much less likely to get shared / go viral than posts on Medium and so have lower expected views. [snip]
The extent to which this is a bug depends on the extent to which posts are aimed at “going viral” / getting shared. If our aim is intellectual generativity, then we do want to attract the best minds of the internet to come think with us, and that does require sometimes having posts go viral. But it doesn’t require optimizing the average post for that; it in fact almost benefits from having most posts exist in the relative quiet of a stable community, a community (ideally) with deep intellectual context with which to digest that particular post, such that one can often speak to that community without worrying about whether one’s points will be intelligible or palatable to newcomers.
Insofar as writers expect on a visceral level that “number of shares” is the useful thing… people will be pulling against an incentive gradient when choosing LW over Facebook. Insofar as writers come to expect on a visceral level that “adding to this centralized conversational project” tracks value, and that number of shares (from parties who don’t then join the conversation, and who don’t carry on their own good intellectual work elsewhere) is mostly a distraction or blinking light… the incentive may actually come to feel different.
People do sometimes do what is hard when they perceive it to be useful.
3 Comments on LessWrong are more critical and less polite than comments on other sites.
I feel there’s an avoidable part of this, which we should avoid; and then an actually useful part of this, which we should keep (and should endeavor to develop positive affect around — when one accurately perceives the usefulness of a thing, it can sometimes come to feel better). See Sarah’s recent post: On Trying Not To Be Wrong
4 Posts on LessWrong are held in lower regard academic communities like ML and policy than posts elsewhere, including on Medium.
This seems like a bad sign, though I am not sure what to do about it. I don’t think it’s worth compromising the integrity of our conversation for the sake of outside palatability; cross-posting seems plausible; I’d also like to understand it more.
Thoughts on RyanCarey’s problems list, point by point:
Not sure all of them are “problems”, exactly. I agree that incentive gradients matter, though.
Comments on the specific “problems”:
Insofar as 1 is true, it seems like a genuine and simple bug that is probably worth fixing. Matt Graves is I believe the person to talk to if one has ideas or $ to contribute to this. (Or the Arbital crew, insofar as they’re taking suggestions.)
The extent to which this is a bug depends on the extent to which posts are aimed at “going viral” / getting shared. If our aim is intellectual generativity, then we do want to attract the best minds of the internet to come think with us, and that does require sometimes having posts go viral. But it doesn’t require optimizing the average post for that; it in fact almost benefits from having most posts exist in the relative quiet of a stable community, a community (ideally) with deep intellectual context with which to digest that particular post, such that one can often speak to that community without worrying about whether one’s points will be intelligible or palatable to newcomers.
Insofar as writers expect on a visceral level that “number of shares” is the useful thing… people will be pulling against an incentive gradient when choosing LW over Facebook. Insofar as writers come to expect on a visceral level that “adding to this centralized conversational project” tracks value, and that number of shares (from parties who don’t then join the conversation, and who don’t carry on their own good intellectual work elsewhere) is mostly a distraction or blinking light… the incentive may actually come to feel different.
People do sometimes do what is hard when they perceive it to be useful.
I feel there’s an avoidable part of this, which we should avoid; and then an actually useful part of this, which we should keep (and should endeavor to develop positive affect around — when one accurately perceives the usefulness of a thing, it can sometimes come to feel better). See Sarah’s recent post: On Trying Not To Be Wrong
This seems like a bad sign, though I am not sure what to do about it. I don’t think it’s worth compromising the integrity of our conversation for the sake of outside palatability; cross-posting seems plausible; I’d also like to understand it more.
Yep, message me about this, either here or by email (this username at gmail).