This one sat at −2 for awhile; I was confused by that.
I think it also got downvoted for promoting bad behavior.
Then you come across several legitimately successful people, who are being rewarded for making people sad, or inflicting pain, or for attaching a price to other peoples’ happiness.
And then something clicks.
You speak about observing bad people winning in a direct way. That’s something for which some folks on LW vote you down. On the other hand your post isn’t insightful in a way where the people who enjoy analysing the dark arts of social interaction will upvote your post in significant amounts.
If popularity is your goal that you might want to avoid posts that advocate that bad social behavior pays off. If you still want to write those posts, go more into theoretical depth or quote statistics but even then the post probably doesn’t reach a >90% approval rate.
My guess is that the comment was downvoted because it’s wrong, or at least inaccurate. People are seldom rewarded for harming others: using Carlo M. Cipolla’s terminology, there is an important distinction between banditry and stupidity. Banditry probably causes quite a bit of harm, but stupidity may be far more common overall. It’s also more relevant to LessWrong’s goal of promoting rationality.
I think it also got downvoted for promoting bad behavior.
You speak about observing bad people winning in a direct way. That’s something for which some folks on LW vote you down. On the other hand your post isn’t insightful in a way where the people who enjoy analysing the dark arts of social interaction will upvote your post in significant amounts.
If popularity is your goal that you might want to avoid posts that advocate that bad social behavior pays off. If you still want to write those posts, go more into theoretical depth or quote statistics but even then the post probably doesn’t reach a >90% approval rate.
My guess is that the comment was downvoted because it’s wrong, or at least inaccurate. People are seldom rewarded for harming others: using Carlo M. Cipolla’s terminology, there is an important distinction between banditry and stupidity. Banditry probably causes quite a bit of harm, but stupidity may be far more common overall. It’s also more relevant to LessWrong’s goal of promoting rationality.