All (90%) of rationalist women who would not otherwise have become rationalist women became so because of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.
I’m not sure that’s true. When I looked in the 2012 survey, I didn’t see any striking gender disparity based on MoR: http://lesswrong.com/lw/fp5/2012_survey_results/8bms—something like 31% of the women found LW via MoR vs 21% of the men, but there are just not that many women in the survey...
That does not factor the main point ” that would not otherwise have become rationalist”
There are loads of women out there on a certain road into rationalism. Those don’t matter. By definition, they will become rationalists anyway.
There are large numbers who could, and we don’t know how large, or how else they could, except HPMOR
Leaving aside gwern’s rudeness, he is right—if MoR doesn’t entice more women towards rationality than the average intervention, and your goal is to change the current gender imbalance among LW-rationalists, then MoR is not a good investment for your attention or time.
It is not a claim, it is an assumption that the reader ought to take for granted, not verify. If I thought there were reliable large N data of a double blind on the subject, I’d simply have linked the stats. As I know there are not, I said something based on personal experience (as one should) and asked for advice on how to improve the world, if the world turns out to correlate with my experience of it.
Your response reminds me of Russell’s joke about those who believe that “all murderers have been caught, since all muderers we know have been caught”…
The point is to find attractors, not to reject the stats.
I’m not sure that’s true. When I looked in the 2012 survey, I didn’t see any striking gender disparity based on MoR: http://lesswrong.com/lw/fp5/2012_survey_results/8bms—something like 31% of the women found LW via MoR vs 21% of the men, but there are just not that many women in the survey...
That does not factor the main point ” that would not otherwise have become rationalist” There are loads of women out there on a certain road into rationalism. Those don’t matter. By definition, they will become rationalists anyway.
There are large numbers who could, and we don’t know how large, or how else they could, except HPMOR
Leaving aside gwern’s rudeness, he is right—if MoR doesn’t entice more women towards rationality than the average intervention, and your goal is to change the current gender imbalance among LW-rationalists, then MoR is not a good investment for your attention or time.
I’m sorry, I was just trying to interpret the claim in a non-stupidly unverifiable and unprovable sense.
It is not a claim, it is an assumption that the reader ought to take for granted, not verify. If I thought there were reliable large N data of a double blind on the subject, I’d simply have linked the stats. As I know there are not, I said something based on personal experience (as one should) and asked for advice on how to improve the world, if the world turns out to correlate with my experience of it.
Your response reminds me of Russell’s joke about those who believe that “all murderers have been caught, since all muderers we know have been caught”…
The point is to find attractors, not to reject the stats.
ಠ_ಠ All (90%) of rationalist women who would not otherwise have become rationalist women became so because of Baby Eaters in “Three Worlds Collide”.
Thus, we need 50 Shades of Cooked Babies.
As well as good marketing designs of things that attract women into rationality.
Does this strike you as dubious? Well, it is not a claim, it is an assumption that the reader ought to take for granted, not verify!