Hi! I’m Eric, a freshman at UC Berkeley. I’ve been lurking on Overcoming Bias/Less Wrong for a long time.
I had been reading OB before LW existed; I don’t even remember when I started reading OB (maybe even before high school!). It’s too long ago for me to remember clearly, but I think I found OB while I was reading about transhumanism, which I was very interested in. I still agree with the ideas of transhumanism, and I guess I would still identify myself as a transhumanist, but I don’t actively read about it much anymore. I read LW less than I used to, but I’m starting to read it more now; LW and OB are basically the only transhumanist-related blogs that I still read.
I guess I like this site because I like things that are interesting and make me think; there are a lot of good and interesting ideas floating around here, and the quality of the posts and comments is excellent. I don’t think I’ve encountered a single other site with such good comments. I like to say that I’m too curious and have too many interests; I spend a lot of time reading about things that interest me and I don’t know what I want to do.
Why am I introducing myself and no longer lurking after all these years? I used to be really bad at expressing myself in writing: I wrote slowly and badly, and reading my old blog comments makes me cringe. I was good at reading, and at producing grammatically correct sentences, but I was terrible at actually using written language to get my ideas across. For example, just two years ago (in 11th grade), I scored 80⁄80 on the Writing Multiple Choice section of the SAT, but only 7⁄12 on the essay! Now, though, I find that I can write just fine (and I have no idea why this suddenly happened). So I’m finally introducing myself because I can finally write decent posts and comments :)
A quick question for more experienced LW commenters: I posted a comment (http://lesswrong.com/lw/8nr/intuitive_explanation_of_solomonoff_induction/5k5b) on an old, non-promoted post, and it didn’t show up in the recent comments section. As a result, no one seems to have even seen it, and I don’t know whether my addition was useful or not. How can I make these kinds of contributions visible in the future?
It’s currently non-intuitive, but the “recent comments” for the main section appear only to those who’ve selected to see the main section, and the “recent comments” for the discussion appear only to those who’ve selected the discussion. This is one of the silliest aspects of this site’s design.
It’s currently non-intuitive, but the “recent comments” for the main section appear only to those who’ve selected to see the main section, and the “recent comments” for the discussion appear only to those who’ve selected the discussion.
Oh wow! I have been on this site for almost 2 months and have not realized this until you commented on it. Thanks for mentioning!
(Also, yes, this is a very counter-intuitive, and difficult interface feature that should be changed)
Hi! I’m Eric, a freshman at UC Berkeley. I’ve been lurking on Overcoming Bias/Less Wrong for a long time.
I had been reading OB before LW existed; I don’t even remember when I started reading OB (maybe even before high school!). It’s too long ago for me to remember clearly, but I think I found OB while I was reading about transhumanism, which I was very interested in. I still agree with the ideas of transhumanism, and I guess I would still identify myself as a transhumanist, but I don’t actively read about it much anymore. I read LW less than I used to, but I’m starting to read it more now; LW and OB are basically the only transhumanist-related blogs that I still read.
I guess I like this site because I like things that are interesting and make me think; there are a lot of good and interesting ideas floating around here, and the quality of the posts and comments is excellent. I don’t think I’ve encountered a single other site with such good comments. I like to say that I’m too curious and have too many interests; I spend a lot of time reading about things that interest me and I don’t know what I want to do.
Why am I introducing myself and no longer lurking after all these years? I used to be really bad at expressing myself in writing: I wrote slowly and badly, and reading my old blog comments makes me cringe. I was good at reading, and at producing grammatically correct sentences, but I was terrible at actually using written language to get my ideas across. For example, just two years ago (in 11th grade), I scored 80⁄80 on the Writing Multiple Choice section of the SAT, but only 7⁄12 on the essay! Now, though, I find that I can write just fine (and I have no idea why this suddenly happened). So I’m finally introducing myself because I can finally write decent posts and comments :)
A quick question for more experienced LW commenters: I posted a comment (http://lesswrong.com/lw/8nr/intuitive_explanation_of_solomonoff_induction/5k5b) on an old, non-promoted post, and it didn’t show up in the recent comments section. As a result, no one seems to have even seen it, and I don’t know whether my addition was useful or not. How can I make these kinds of contributions visible in the future?
It’s currently non-intuitive, but the “recent comments” for the main section appear only to those who’ve selected to see the main section, and the “recent comments” for the discussion appear only to those who’ve selected the discussion. This is one of the silliest aspects of this site’s design.
Oh wow! I have been on this site for almost 2 months and have not realized this until you commented on it. Thanks for mentioning!
(Also, yes, this is a very counter-intuitive, and difficult interface feature that should be changed)