it seems to me that for a supposedly “rationalist” community, people here seem to be far too willing to accept claims of LessWrong exceptionality based on shockingly weak evidence.
Claiming that your group is the best in the world, or among the best, is something nearly every single group in history did, and all had some anecdotal “evidence” for it. Priors are very strongly against this claim, even after including these anecdotes.
To reply honestly to this, I think that LW is (close to) superlative in some dimensions. It’s just that when people try to tell the community that there’s a bunch of other more important dimensions that it sucks at, people get angry and shoot the messenger.
I think that LW is (close to) superlative in some dimensions.
I agree. I haven’t found another online forum which I prefer. I agreed with taw because (a) I think that some people here do attach a halo to LW, viewing it as “The Way” in some generalized sense and (b) people forget that a fair portion of what appears on LW is well known within certain circles (c.f. Don’t Revere The Bearer Of Good Info ).
It’s just that when people try to tell the community that there’s a bunch of other more important dimensions that it sucks at, people get angry and shoot the messenger.
It’s just that when people try to tell the community that there’s a bunch of other more important dimensions that it sucks at, people get angry and shoot the messenger
There is however room for disagreement on just how much “more important” these “other dimensions” are.
(Not necessarily taking a position myself, mind you.)
I strongly agree.
To reply honestly to this, I think that LW is (close to) superlative in some dimensions. It’s just that when people try to tell the community that there’s a bunch of other more important dimensions that it sucks at, people get angry and shoot the messenger.
I agree. I haven’t found another online forum which I prefer. I agreed with taw because (a) I think that some people here do attach a halo to LW, viewing it as “The Way” in some generalized sense and (b) people forget that a fair portion of what appears on LW is well known within certain circles (c.f. Don’t Revere The Bearer Of Good Info ).
I’ve noticed examples of this sort of thing.
What kind of dimensions did you have in mind here?
There is however room for disagreement on just how much “more important” these “other dimensions” are.
(Not necessarily taking a position myself, mind you.)