I generally fear that perhaps some people see LessWrong as a place where people just read and discuss “interesting stuff”, not much different from a Sub-Reddit on anime or something. You show up, see what’s interesting that week, chat with your friends. LessWrong’s content might be considered “more healthy” relative to most internet content and many people say they browse LessWrong to procrastinate but feel less guilty about than other browsing, but the use-case still seems a bit about entertainment.
None of the above is really a bad thing, but in my mind, LessWrong is about much more than a place for people to hang out and find entertainment in sharing joint interests. In my mind, LessWrong is a place where the community makes collective progress on valuable problems. It is an ongoing discussion where we all try to improve our understanding of the world and ourselves. It’s not just play or entertainment– it’s about getting somewhere. It’s as much like an academic journal where people publish and discuss important findings as it is like an interest-based sub-Reddit.
And all this makes me really excited by the LessWrong 2018 Review. The idea of the review is to identify posts that have stood the test of time and have made lasting contributions to the community’s knowledge and meaningfully impacted people’s lives. It’s about finding the posts that represent the progress we’ve made.
During the design of the review (valiantly driven by Raemon), I was apprehensive that people would not feel motivated by the process and put in the necessary work. But less than 24 hours after launching, I’m excited by the nominations and what people are writing in their nomination comments.
Looking at the list of nominations so far and reading the comments, I’m thinking “Yes! This is a list showing the meaningful progress the LW community has made. We are not just a news or entertainment site. We’re building something here. This is what we’re about. So many great posts that have helped individuals and community level up. Stuff I’m really proud of.” There are posts about communication, society narratives, AI, history, honesty, reasoning and argumentation, and more: each crystallizing concepts and helping us think about reality better, make better decisions.
I am excited that by the end of the process we will be able to point to the very best content from 2018, and then do that for each year.
Of late, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to make LessWrong’s historical corpus of great content more accessible: search/tagging/Wiki’s. We’ve got a lot of great content that does stand the test of time. Let’s make it easy for people to find relevant stuff. Let it be clear that LW is akin to a body of scientific work, not Reddit or FB. Let this be clear so that people feel enthused to contribute to our ongoing progress, knowing that if they write something good, it won’t merely be read and enjoyed this week, it’ll become part of communal corpus to be built upon. Our project of communal understand and self-improvement.
Why I’m excited by the 2018 Review
I generally fear that perhaps some people see LessWrong as a place where people just read and discuss “interesting stuff”, not much different from a Sub-Reddit on anime or something. You show up, see what’s interesting that week, chat with your friends. LessWrong’s content might be considered “more healthy” relative to most internet content and many people say they browse LessWrong to procrastinate but feel less guilty about than other browsing, but the use-case still seems a bit about entertainment.
None of the above is really a bad thing, but in my mind, LessWrong is about much more than a place for people to hang out and find entertainment in sharing joint interests. In my mind, LessWrong is a place where the community makes collective progress on valuable problems. It is an ongoing discussion where we all try to improve our understanding of the world and ourselves. It’s not just play or entertainment– it’s about getting somewhere. It’s as much like an academic journal where people publish and discuss important findings as it is like an interest-based sub-Reddit.
And all this makes me really excited by the LessWrong 2018 Review. The idea of the review is to identify posts that have stood the test of time and have made lasting contributions to the community’s knowledge and meaningfully impacted people’s lives. It’s about finding the posts that represent the progress we’ve made.
During the design of the review (valiantly driven by Raemon), I was apprehensive that people would not feel motivated by the process and put in the necessary work. But less than 24 hours after launching, I’m excited by the nominations and what people are writing in their nomination comments.
Looking at the list of nominations so far and reading the comments, I’m thinking “Yes! This is a list showing the meaningful progress the LW community has made. We are not just a news or entertainment site. We’re building something here. This is what we’re about. So many great posts that have helped individuals and community level up. Stuff I’m really proud of.” There are posts about communication, society narratives, AI, history, honesty, reasoning and argumentation, and more: each crystallizing concepts and helping us think about reality better, make better decisions.
I am excited that by the end of the process we will be able to point to the very best content from 2018, and then do that for each year.
Of late, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to make LessWrong’s historical corpus of great content more accessible: search/tagging/Wiki’s. We’ve got a lot of great content that does stand the test of time. Let’s make it easy for people to find relevant stuff. Let it be clear that LW is akin to a body of scientific work, not Reddit or FB. Let this be clear so that people feel enthused to contribute to our ongoing progress, knowing that if they write something good, it won’t merely be read and enjoyed this week, it’ll become part of communal corpus to be built upon. Our project of communal understand and self-improvement.