doing essentially nothing about a large influx of new users interested only in “debating philosophy” who do not even read the sequences (Eternal November).
This is important. One of the great things about LW is/was the “LW consensus”, so that we don’t constantly have to spend time rehashing the basics. (I dunno that I agree with everything in the “LW consensus”, but then, I don’t think anyone entirely did except Eliezer himself. When I say “the basics”, I mean, I guess, a more universally agreed-on stripped down core of it.) Someone shows up saying “But what if nothing is real?”, we don’t have to debate them. That’s the sort of thing it’s useful to just downvote (or otherwise discourage, if we’re making a new system), no matter how nicely it may be said, because no productive discussion can come of it. People complained about how people would say “read the sequences”, but seriously, it saved a lot of trouble.
There were occasional interesting and original objections to the basics. I can’t find it now but there was an interesting series of posts responding to this post of mine on Savage’s theorem; this response argued for the proposition that no, we shouldn’t use probability (something that others had often asserted, but with much less reason). It is indeed possible to come up with intelligent objections to what we consider the basics here. But most of the objections that came up were just unoriginal and uninformed, and could, in fact, correctly be answered with “read the sequences”.
That’s the sort of thing it’s useful to just downvote (or otherwise discourage, if we’re making a new system), no matter how nicely it may be said, because no productive discussion can come of it.
When it’s useful it’s useful, when it’s damaging it’s damaging, It’s damaging when the sequences don’t actually solve the problem. The outside view is that all too often one is directed to the sequences only to find that the selfsame objection one has made has also been made in the comments and has not been answered. It’s just too easy to silently downvote, or write “read the sequences”. In an alternative universe there is a LW where people don’t RTFS unless they have carefully checked that the problem has really been resolved, rather than superficially pattern matching. And the overuse of RTFS is precisely what feeds the impression that LW is a cult...that’s where the damage is coming from.
Unfortunately, although all of that is fixable, it cannot be fixed without “debating philosophy”.
ETA
Most of the suggestions here have been about changing the social organisation of LW, or changing the technology. There is a third option which is much bolder than than of those: redoing rationality. Treat the sequences as a version 0.0 in need of improvement. That’s a big project which will provide focus, and send a costly signal of anti-cultishness, because cults don’t revise doctrine.
I’m not sure so what you mean. Developing Sequences 0.1 can be done with the help of technology, but it can’t be done without community effort, and without a rethink of the status of the sequences.
This is important. One of the great things about LW is/was the “LW consensus”, so that we don’t constantly have to spend time rehashing the basics. (I dunno that I agree with everything in the “LW consensus”, but then, I don’t think anyone entirely did except Eliezer himself. When I say “the basics”, I mean, I guess, a more universally agreed-on stripped down core of it.) Someone shows up saying “But what if nothing is real?”, we don’t have to debate them. That’s the sort of thing it’s useful to just downvote (or otherwise discourage, if we’re making a new system), no matter how nicely it may be said, because no productive discussion can come of it. People complained about how people would say “read the sequences”, but seriously, it saved a lot of trouble.
There were occasional interesting and original objections to the basics. I can’t find it now but there was an interesting series of posts responding to this post of mine on Savage’s theorem; this response argued for the proposition that no, we shouldn’t use probability (something that others had often asserted, but with much less reason). It is indeed possible to come up with intelligent objections to what we consider the basics here. But most of the objections that came up were just unoriginal and uninformed, and could, in fact, correctly be answered with “read the sequences”.
When it’s useful it’s useful, when it’s damaging it’s damaging, It’s damaging when the sequences don’t actually solve the problem. The outside view is that all too often one is directed to the sequences only to find that the selfsame objection one has made has also been made in the comments and has not been answered. It’s just too easy to silently downvote, or write “read the sequences”. In an alternative universe there is a LW where people don’t RTFS unless they have carefully checked that the problem has really been resolved, rather than superficially pattern matching. And the overuse of RTFS is precisely what feeds the impression that LW is a cult...that’s where the damage is coming from.
Unfortunately, although all of that is fixable, it cannot be fixed without “debating philosophy”.
ETA
Most of the suggestions here have been about changing the social organisation of LW, or changing the technology. There is a third option which is much bolder than than of those: redoing rationality. Treat the sequences as a version 0.0 in need of improvement. That’s a big project which will provide focus, and send a costly signal of anti-cultishness, because cults don’t revise doctrine.
Good point. I actually think this can be fixed with software. StackExchange features are part of the answer.
I’m not sure so what you mean. Developing Sequences 0.1 can be done with the help of technology, but it can’t be done without community effort, and without a rethink of the status of the sequences.