That’s interesting. Do you have specific examples? I’d be interested the context where he said that. I do agree if that reduced Eliezer’s contribution that was a significant negative impact.
My concern is more rooted in status. LW is already associated enough with fringe ideas, I don’t think it does us well to be seen endorsing low-status things without evidence. Imagine (as an extreme example, I’m not trying to equate the two) if I said something about Flat Earth Theory and then if I was challenged on it said that I didn’t think it was an appropriate place to discuss it. That’s… not a good look.
There are two issues here. First, being too much concerned with signaling status is exactly what this sequence challenges.
Second, even if status is your core concern moving a discussion that’s about an abstract principle to one that’s about personal romantic experience is a low status move.
The key question of Zvi’s post is “The world would be better if people treated more situations like the first set of problems, and less situations like the second set of problems. How to do that?”.
I gave an example of how to think about one of this example in the second set to move it towards the first. I pointed to the way out of the maze. Yes, going out of the maze is low status but that’s the point. Thinking well through the example takes a bit of a Straussian perspective.
I think if you don’t want to debate or defend controversial statements it’s probably best to just not make them in the first place.
That’s the kind of thinking that drove Eliezer from posting on LessWrong. I think it’s pretty harmful for our community.
That’s interesting. Do you have specific examples? I’d be interested the context where he said that. I do agree if that reduced Eliezer’s contribution that was a significant negative impact.
My concern is more rooted in status. LW is already associated enough with fringe ideas, I don’t think it does us well to be seen endorsing low-status things without evidence. Imagine (as an extreme example, I’m not trying to equate the two) if I said something about Flat Earth Theory and then if I was challenged on it said that I didn’t think it was an appropriate place to discuss it. That’s… not a good look.
There are two issues here. First, being too much concerned with signaling status is exactly what this sequence challenges.
Second, even if status is your core concern moving a discussion that’s about an abstract principle to one that’s about personal romantic experience is a low status move.
The key question of Zvi’s post is “The world would be better if people treated more situations like the first set of problems, and less situations like the second set of problems. How to do that?”.
I gave an example of how to think about one of this example in the second set to move it towards the first. I pointed to the way out of the maze. Yes, going out of the maze is low status but that’s the point. Thinking well through the example takes a bit of a Straussian perspective.