I really enjoyed The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. (By contrast, I tried reading some @pjeby stuff yesterday and it had all the problems you describe cranked up to 11 and I found it incredibly difficult to keep reading.)
I don’t think the selection bias thing would be a problem if the community was focused on high-priority instrumental rationality techniques, since at any level of effectiveness becoming more effective should be a reasonably high priority. (By contrast, if the community is focused on low-priority techniques it’s not that big a deal (that was my attitude toward OvercomingBias at the beginning) and when it gets focused on stuff like cryo/MWI/FAI I find that an active turnoff.)
I think there’s a decent chance epistemic rationality, ceteris paribus, makes you less likely to be traditionally successful My general impression from talking to very successful people is that very few of them are any good at figuring out what’s true; indeed, they often seem to have set up elaborate defense mechanisms to make sure no one accidentally tells them the truth.
I tried reading some @pjeby stuff yesterday and it had all the problems you describe cranked up to 11
Technically, John was describing the problems of analytical readers, rather than the problems of self-help writers. ;-)
I have noticed, though, that some of my early writing (e.g. 2010 and before) is very polarizing in style: people tend to either love it or hate it, and the “hate it” contingent seems larger on LW than anywhere else.
However, most of the people who’ve previously said on LW that they hate my writing, seemed to enjoy this LW post, so you may find something of use there.
I really enjoyed The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. (By contrast, I tried reading some @pjeby stuff yesterday and it had all the problems you describe cranked up to 11 and I found it incredibly difficult to keep reading.)
I don’t think the selection bias thing would be a problem if the community was focused on high-priority instrumental rationality techniques, since at any level of effectiveness becoming more effective should be a reasonably high priority. (By contrast, if the community is focused on low-priority techniques it’s not that big a deal (that was my attitude toward OvercomingBias at the beginning) and when it gets focused on stuff like cryo/MWI/FAI I find that an active turnoff.)
I think there’s a decent chance epistemic rationality, ceteris paribus, makes you less likely to be traditionally successful My general impression from talking to very successful people is that very few of them are any good at figuring out what’s true; indeed, they often seem to have set up elaborate defense mechanisms to make sure no one accidentally tells them the truth.
Technically, John was describing the problems of analytical readers, rather than the problems of self-help writers. ;-)
I have noticed, though, that some of my early writing (e.g. 2010 and before) is very polarizing in style: people tend to either love it or hate it, and the “hate it” contingent seems larger on LW than anywhere else.
However, most of the people who’ve previously said on LW that they hate my writing, seemed to enjoy this LW post, so you may find something of use there.
It’s the …
INFOMERCIAL STYLE!
… of formatting. Doesn’t work for everyone ;-)