Interesting theory, but I suspect, and the survey results seem to suggest, that the akrastic anti-productivity seemingly common to LW is a feature of its demographic rather than of its content. Motivational problems seem more common on LW than outside, but if reading LW makes them worse it happens either all at once and so quickly that a poll here can’t tease out the progression, or by some mechanism that self-reporting doesn’t reflect and that we haven’t otherwise been able to measure yet.
That doesn’t necessarily screen off some close relatives of Vassar’s hypothesis, though; perhaps the damage has already been done by the time a worldview receptive to LW’s content is created.
I think there are certainly people on LW without akrasia problems. It’s just that the people who spend the most time posting are the ones with the akraisia problems.
I agree. It is analogous to the oft posted question on AskReddit “How do I Stop Browsing Reddit?” Those who have the ability to tell an akrasia ridden redditor how to stop browsing are not on the site to begin with.
Interesting theory, but I suspect, and the survey results seem to suggest, that the akrastic anti-productivity seemingly common to LW is a feature of its demographic rather than of its content. Motivational problems seem more common on LW than outside, but if reading LW makes them worse it happens either all at once and so quickly that a poll here can’t tease out the progression, or by some mechanism that self-reporting doesn’t reflect and that we haven’t otherwise been able to measure yet.
That doesn’t necessarily screen off some close relatives of Vassar’s hypothesis, though; perhaps the damage has already been done by the time a worldview receptive to LW’s content is created.
I think there are certainly people on LW without akrasia problems. It’s just that the people who spend the most time posting are the ones with the akraisia problems.
I agree. It is analogous to the oft posted question on AskReddit “How do I Stop Browsing Reddit?” Those who have the ability to tell an akrasia ridden redditor how to stop browsing are not on the site to begin with.