Hypothesis that becomes very salient from managing the LW FB page: “likes and hearts” are a measure of how much people already liked your message/conclusion*.
*And also like how well written/how alluring a title/how actually insightful/how easy to understand, etc. But it also seems that the most popular posts are those which are within the Overton window, have less inferential distance, and a likable message. That’s not to say they can’t have tremendous value, but it does make me think that the most popular posts are not going to be the same as the most valuable posts + optimizing for likes is not going to be same as optimizing for value.
**And maybe this seems very obvious to many already, but it just feels so much more concrete when I’m putting three posts out there a week (all of which I think are great) and seeing which get the strongest response.
Hypothesis that becomes very salient from managing the LW FB page: “likes and hearts” are a measure of how much people already liked your message/conclusion*.
*And also like how well written/how alluring a title/how actually insightful/how easy to understand, etc. But it also seems that the most popular posts are those which are within the Overton window, have less inferential distance, and a likable message. That’s not to say they can’t have tremendous value, but it does make me think that the most popular posts are not going to be the same as the most valuable posts + optimizing for likes is not going to be same as optimizing for value.
**And maybe this seems very obvious to many already, but it just feels so much more concrete when I’m putting three posts out there a week (all of which I think are great) and seeing which get the strongest response.
***This effect may be strongest at the tails.
****I think this effect would affect Gordon’s proposed NPS-rating too.
*****I have less of this feeling on LW proper, but definitely far from zero.