My name is Alexander, and I live and work as a software engineer in Australia. I studied the subtle art of computation at university and graduated some years ago. I don’t know the demographics of LessWrong, but I don’t imagine myself unique around here.
I am fascinated by the elegance of computation. It is stunning that we can create computers to instantiate abstract objects and their relations using physical objects and their motions and interactions.
I have been reading LessWrong for years but only recently decided to start posting and contributing towards the communal effort. I am thoroughly impressed by the high-quality standards maintained here, both in terms of the civility and integrity of discussions as well as the quality of software. I’ve only posted twice and have learnt valuable knowledge both times.
My gateway into Rationality has primarily been through reading books. I became somewhat active on Goodreads some years ago and started posting book reviews as a fun way to engage the community and practice critical thinking and idea generation. I quickly gravitated towards Rationality books and binge-read several of them. Rationality and Science books have been formative in shaping my worldview.
Learning the art of Rationality has had a positive impact on me. I cannot prove a causal link, but it probably exists. Several of my friends have commented that conversations with me have brought them clarity and optimism in recent years. A few of them were influenced enough to start frequenting LessWrong and reading the sequences.
I found Rationality: A-Z to be written in a profound and forceful yet balanced and humane way, but most importantly, brilliantly witty. I found this quote from Church vs Taskforce awe-inspiring:
If you’re explicitly setting out to build community—then right after a move is when someone most lacks community, when they most need your help. It’s also an opportunity for the band to grow.
Based on my personal experience, LessWrong is doing a remarkable job building out a community around Rationality. LessWrong seems very aware of the pitfalls that can afflict this type of community.
Over on Goodreads, a common criticism I see of Rationality and Effective Altruism is a fear of cultishness (with the less legitimate critics claiming that Rationality is impossible because Hegel said the nature of reality is ‘contradiction’). Such criticisms tend to be wary of the tendency of such communities towards reinforcing their own biases and applying motivated skepticism towards outsider ideas. However, for what it’s worth, that is not what I see around here. As Eliezer elucidates in Cultish Countercultishness, it takes an unwavering effort to resist the temptation towards cultishness. I hope to see this resistance continuing!
My gateway into Rationality has primarily been through reading books. I became somewhat active on Goodreads some years ago and started posting book reviews as a fun way to engage with the community and practice critical thinking and idea generation. I quickly gravitated towards Rationality books and binge-read several of them. Rationality books have been formative in my worldview.
If you don’t mind sharing the link to your profile, I’m curious about your Goodreads reviews.
This is my Goodreads profile (removed link for privacy given this is the public internet). You are welcome to add me as a friend if you use Goodreads.
I am considering posting book reviews on LessWrong instead of Goodreads because I love the software quality here, especially the WYSIWYG editor. Goodreads is still stuck on a HTML editor from 1993. However, given the high epistemic standards on LessWrong, I will be slower to post here. I never expect anyone to ask me to provide a source over at Goodreads but here I better be rigorous and prudent with what I say, which is a good thing!
I am considering using Goodreads to manage my bookshelves electronically. But for reviews, I plan to post links to my LessWrong reviews to avoid spending time formatting text for both editors. Formatting text for Goodreads is rather effortful.
I have found the reviews and the discussions on Goodreads to be, on average, more concerned with persuasion than explanation.
Additionally, Goodreads would benefit significantly from a more effective voting system. You can only upvote, so people with a large following tend to dominate, regardless of the veracity or eloquence of what they write.
I am writing this here because I do not like to ghost anyone, unless see PS below.
You recently ask to be my friend on goodreads. However, you do not accept messages, and I feel that friends communicate. If all you went is to discuss books you can always comment, and then all you need to do is follow me.
Sorry for posting this here, but it was the only way, since I can’t even post a comment on a review without already being a friend.
Yours,
Stephie
Pronouns She/Her
PS—I don’t know what reviews you read on goodreads, but I do not find reviews of the nature you don’t like; it could be because I only read reviews from friends, and unlike you I let all comment. If I have and issue with it, depending on the nature of it, I will engage with commenter and present my complaint. However, if it is in anyway transphobic or it appears that you are hitting on me, I delete, and do nothing else.
Hello Stephie,
I set my goodreads profile to private a while back because of spam.
I understand your concerns. I assure you that I do not write hate speech in my reviews or engage in any other kind of misconduct.
Thanks for reaching out!
I’d caution against pursuing people too hard about friend requests on the Internet, even if they offered. Maybe a short message saying “hey, I sent you a request in case you didn’t see it”, but then leave it at that if they still don’t respond.
Hello,
My name is Alexander, and I live and work as a software engineer in Australia. I studied the subtle art of computation at university and graduated some years ago. I don’t know the demographics of LessWrong, but I don’t imagine myself unique around here.
I am fascinated by the elegance of computation. It is stunning that we can create computers to instantiate abstract objects and their relations using physical objects and their motions and interactions.
I have been reading LessWrong for years but only recently decided to start posting and contributing towards the communal effort. I am thoroughly impressed by the high-quality standards maintained here, both in terms of the civility and integrity of discussions as well as the quality of software. I’ve only posted twice and have learnt valuable knowledge both times.
My gateway into Rationality has primarily been through reading books. I became somewhat active on Goodreads some years ago and started posting book reviews as a fun way to engage the community and practice critical thinking and idea generation. I quickly gravitated towards Rationality books and binge-read several of them. Rationality and Science books have been formative in shaping my worldview.
Learning the art of Rationality has had a positive impact on me. I cannot prove a causal link, but it probably exists. Several of my friends have commented that conversations with me have brought them clarity and optimism in recent years. A few of them were influenced enough to start frequenting LessWrong and reading the sequences.
I found Rationality: A-Z to be written in a profound and forceful yet balanced and humane way, but most importantly, brilliantly witty. I found this quote from Church vs Taskforce awe-inspiring:
Based on my personal experience, LessWrong is doing a remarkable job building out a community around Rationality. LessWrong seems very aware of the pitfalls that can afflict this type of community.
Over on Goodreads, a common criticism I see of Rationality and Effective Altruism is a fear of cultishness (with the less legitimate critics claiming that Rationality is impossible because Hegel said the nature of reality is ‘contradiction’). Such criticisms tend to be wary of the tendency of such communities towards reinforcing their own biases and applying motivated skepticism towards outsider ideas. However, for what it’s worth, that is not what I see around here. As Eliezer elucidates in Cultish Countercultishness, it takes an unwavering effort to resist the temptation towards cultishness. I hope to see this resistance continuing!
If you don’t mind sharing the link to your profile, I’m curious about your Goodreads reviews.
This is my Goodreads profile (removed link for privacy given this is the public internet). You are welcome to add me as a friend if you use Goodreads.
I am considering posting book reviews on LessWrong instead of Goodreads because I love the software quality here, especially the WYSIWYG editor. Goodreads is still stuck on a HTML editor from 1993. However, given the high epistemic standards on LessWrong, I will be slower to post here. I never expect anyone to ask me to provide a source over at Goodreads but here I better be rigorous and prudent with what I say, which is a good thing!
You can post on both if you want. Crossposting is common and accepted here.
I am considering using Goodreads to manage my bookshelves electronically. But for reviews, I plan to post links to my LessWrong reviews to avoid spending time formatting text for both editors. Formatting text for Goodreads is rather effortful.
I have found the reviews and the discussions on Goodreads to be, on average, more concerned with persuasion than explanation.
Additionally, Goodreads would benefit significantly from a more effective voting system. You can only upvote, so people with a large following tend to dominate, regardless of the veracity or eloquence of what they write.
Hi Alexander,
I am writing this here because I do not like to ghost anyone, unless see PS below.
You recently ask to be my friend on goodreads. However, you do not accept messages, and I feel that friends communicate. If all you went is to discuss books you can always comment, and then all you need to do is follow me.
Sorry for posting this here, but it was the only way, since I can’t even post a comment on a review without already being a friend.
Yours,
Stephie
Pronouns She/Her
PS—I don’t know what reviews you read on goodreads, but I do not find reviews of the nature you don’t like; it could be because I only read reviews from friends, and unlike you I let all comment. If I have and issue with it, depending on the nature of it, I will engage with commenter and present my complaint. However, if it is in anyway transphobic or it appears that you are hitting on me, I delete, and do nothing else.
Hello Stephie, I set my goodreads profile to private a while back because of spam. I understand your concerns. I assure you that I do not write hate speech in my reviews or engage in any other kind of misconduct. Thanks for reaching out!
I’d caution against pursuing people too hard about friend requests on the Internet, even if they offered. Maybe a short message saying “hey, I sent you a request in case you didn’t see it”, but then leave it at that if they still don’t respond.