Hate to have to say this but directly addressing a concern is social confirmation of a form that the concern deserves to be addressed, and thus that it’s based in something real. Imagine a Scientologist offering to explain to you why Scientology isn’t a cult.
Of the people I know of who are outright hostile to LW, it’s mostly because of basilisks and polyamory and other things that make LW both an easy and a fun target for derision. And we can’t exactly say that those things don’t exist.
Hate to have to say this but directly addressing a concern is social confirmation of a form that the concern deserves to be addressed, and thus that it’s based in something real.
I could see some people responding that way. But I could see others responding with, “oh, ok—that makes sense”. Or maybe, “hm, I can’t tell whether this is legit—let me look into it further”. There are lots of citations and references in the LessWrong writings, so it’s hard to argue with the fact that it’s heavily based off of existing science.
Still, there is the risk of some people just responding with, “Jeez, this guy is getting defensive already. I’m skeptical. This LessWrong stuff is not for me.” I see that directly addressing a concern can signal bad things and cause this reaction, but for whatever reason, my brain is producing a feeling that this sort of reaction will be the minority in this context (in other contexts, I could see the pattern being more harmful). I’m starting to feel less confident in that, though. I have to be careful not to Typical Mind here. I have an issue with Typical Minding too much, and know I need to look out for it.
The good thing is that user research could totally answer this question. Maybe that’d be a good activity for a meet-up group or something. Maybe I’ll give it a go.
Hate to have to say this but directly addressing a concern is social confirmation of a form that the concern deserves to be addressed, and thus that it’s based in something real. Imagine a Scientologist offering to explain to you why Scientology isn’t a cult.
Of the people I know of who are outright hostile to LW, it’s mostly because of basilisks and polyamory and other things that make LW both an easy and a fun target for derision. And we can’t exactly say that those things don’t exist.
I could see some people responding that way. But I could see others responding with, “oh, ok—that makes sense”. Or maybe, “hm, I can’t tell whether this is legit—let me look into it further”. There are lots of citations and references in the LessWrong writings, so it’s hard to argue with the fact that it’s heavily based off of existing science.
Still, there is the risk of some people just responding with, “Jeez, this guy is getting defensive already. I’m skeptical. This LessWrong stuff is not for me.” I see that directly addressing a concern can signal bad things and cause this reaction, but for whatever reason, my brain is producing a feeling that this sort of reaction will be the minority in this context (in other contexts, I could see the pattern being more harmful). I’m starting to feel less confident in that, though. I have to be careful not to Typical Mind here. I have an issue with Typical Minding too much, and know I need to look out for it.
The good thing is that user research could totally answer this question. Maybe that’d be a good activity for a meet-up group or something. Maybe I’ll give it a go.