You are right on my recent comments being somewhat boring. In the past I’ve been told by people that they tend to read my posts because they are usually high quality correction or fun gadflyish needling.
Maybe my comments are more boring because there are fewer things wrong in interesting ways? Not that I would imply there are fewer things wrong in general unfortunate. I mostly agree with all recent criticisms I’ve made but some of it was pretty dull to write, I guess that shows. There are some signs that the political discourse is on a lower level than it was. I unfortunately often end up talking about politics, as I saw politically motivated stupidity on some topics. The other explanation is that I’ve been using the site to procrastinate more and thus didn’t bother to abstain from marginal comments. There is however no excuse for spending way too much time on useless crappy meta debates as I did about a week or two ago.
When I think of what posts of value I think made in the past 30 days in which I’m apparently among the top contributors all I can think of that is of real value are the link posts. Which aren’t bad, as I think LessWrong doesn’t as a community does not update when exposed to good ideas and material from the outside. That this is the only kind of recent posts I see value in does shows I haven’t either not taken the time or had the inspiration for new original ideas or synthesis.
Perhaps I need to study more new material, perhaps I need to do more thinking, perhaps I need a break. On the other hand I do think LW didn’t really learn what I hoped it would from my old comments, so maybe this is more a problem of me sounding like a broken record because I have to keep repeating the same points, since this bores me I do it more poorly than before. So perhaps I need a new venue.
I’ve been meaning to take another month’s leave from the site starting some time this September, to improve the quality of my writing. I guess this is as good as any day to start. Since this topic is open I may as well ask for any more specific feedback you or anyone else on the site might have.
On the other hand I do think LW didn’t really learn what I hoped it would from my old comments, so maybe this is more a problem of me sounding like a broken record because I have to keep repeating the same points, since this bores me I do it more poorly than before. So perhaps I need a new venue.
My suggestion to you is the same as the one I gave to wedrifid: write more posts relative to comments. Comments are for asking/answering questions, or fixing mistakes in other people’s posts, or debates. If you think you have something to teach LW, please do it via posts, where you can organize your thoughts, put in the effort necessary to bridge the inferential gaps, and get the attention you deserve.
(If the suggestion doesn’t make sense to you, I’d be interested to know why. As I said, I made the same suggestion to wedrifid before, but he didn’t respond to agree or disagree, nor did he subsequently write more posts, which leaves me wondering why some LWers choose to write so few posts relative to comments.)
It does make sense to me. I seem to have massive will failure when it comes to writing actual articles. I’ve tried to fix this by writing more public and private drafts, but these generally come out disappointing in my eyes. Also writing comments requires little motivation while writing articles feels like work.
While the strategy of comment>draft>article has done some good, it isn’t good enough at all. No more commenting until I write up an article that is worth submitting, if I don’t, well too bad.
It does make sense to me. I seem to have massive will failure when it comes to writing actual articles. I’ve tried to fix this by writing more public and private drafts, but these generally come out disappointing in my eyes. Also writing comments requires little motivation while writing articles feels like work.
While the strategy of comment>draft>article has done some good, it isn’t good enough at all. No more commenting until I write up an article that is worth submitting, if I don’t, well too bad.
You are right on my recent comments being somewhat boring. In the past I’ve been told by people that they tend to read my posts because they are usually high quality correction or fun gadflyish needling.
Maybe my comments are more boring because there are fewer things wrong in interesting ways? Not that I would imply there are fewer things wrong in general unfortunate. I mostly agree with all recent criticisms I’ve made but some of it was pretty dull to write, I guess that shows. There are some signs that the political discourse is on a lower level than it was. I unfortunately often end up talking about politics, as I saw politically motivated stupidity on some topics. The other explanation is that I’ve been using the site to procrastinate more and thus didn’t bother to abstain from marginal comments. There is however no excuse for spending way too much time on useless crappy meta debates as I did about a week or two ago.
When I think of what posts of value I think made in the past 30 days in which I’m apparently among the top contributors all I can think of that is of real value are the link posts. Which aren’t bad, as I think LessWrong doesn’t as a community does not update when exposed to good ideas and material from the outside. That this is the only kind of recent posts I see value in does shows I haven’t either not taken the time or had the inspiration for new original ideas or synthesis.
Perhaps I need to study more new material, perhaps I need to do more thinking, perhaps I need a break. On the other hand I do think LW didn’t really learn what I hoped it would from my old comments, so maybe this is more a problem of me sounding like a broken record because I have to keep repeating the same points, since this bores me I do it more poorly than before. So perhaps I need a new venue.
I’ve been meaning to take another month’s leave from the site starting some time this September, to improve the quality of my writing. I guess this is as good as any day to start. Since this topic is open I may as well ask for any more specific feedback you or anyone else on the site might have.
My suggestion to you is the same as the one I gave to wedrifid: write more posts relative to comments. Comments are for asking/answering questions, or fixing mistakes in other people’s posts, or debates. If you think you have something to teach LW, please do it via posts, where you can organize your thoughts, put in the effort necessary to bridge the inferential gaps, and get the attention you deserve.
(If the suggestion doesn’t make sense to you, I’d be interested to know why. As I said, I made the same suggestion to wedrifid before, but he didn’t respond to agree or disagree, nor did he subsequently write more posts, which leaves me wondering why some LWers choose to write so few posts relative to comments.)
It does make sense to me. I seem to have massive will failure when it comes to writing actual articles. I’ve tried to fix this by writing more public and private drafts, but these generally come out disappointing in my eyes. Also writing comments requires little motivation while writing articles feels like work.
While the strategy of comment>draft>article has done some good, it isn’t good enough at all. No more commenting until I write up an article that is worth submitting, if I don’t, well too bad.
It does make sense to me. I seem to have massive will failure when it comes to writing actual articles. I’ve tried to fix this by writing more public and private drafts, but these generally come out disappointing in my eyes. Also writing comments requires little motivation while writing articles feels like work.
While the strategy of comment>draft>article has done some good, it isn’t good enough at all. No more commenting until I write up an article that is worth submitting, if I don’t, well too bad.