Yes, I said “almost all”, not “all”. Only a tiny minority of posts on Less Wrong are fictional stories. Even most posts with the “fiction” tag are nonfiction!
My point is that LW-related fiction has probably had an impact out of proportion with its comparatively small number of posts, and thus many people probably have examples of Less Wrong fiction ready to go in their heads.
Therefore, if you asked simply for the best writing on Less Wrong, I think a substantial number of people would misunderstand the question and say “HPMoR, of course,” and a smaller but still significant number would interpret “writing” as “fictional writing” (this is a general norm in English) and say Three Worlds Collide or one of the Jeffreyssai stories or something.
interpret “writing” as “fictional writing” (this is a general norm in English)
I have to disagree; in fact it wouldn’t even occur to me to interpret it that way, especially in this context.
I also don’t think many people would answer “HPMoR” to the question of what the best writing on Less Wrong is, since most people know it isn’t hosted here.
Three Worlds Collide has definitely had an impact greater than the average LW post. However, I am skeptical of the notion that its impact has been so great as to significantly distort people’s perceptions of how much of LW content is fiction, to the point of interpreting a discussion of the “best writing on LW” as being about fiction.
Interesting. You may be right. I think I will try to test these predictions out in person the next time I go to a meetup. I’ll let you know what my results are!
Yes, I said “almost all”, not “all”. Only a tiny minority of posts on Less Wrong are fictional stories. Even most posts with the “fiction” tag are nonfiction!
My point is that LW-related fiction has probably had an impact out of proportion with its comparatively small number of posts, and thus many people probably have examples of Less Wrong fiction ready to go in their heads.
Therefore, if you asked simply for the best writing on Less Wrong, I think a substantial number of people would misunderstand the question and say “HPMoR, of course,” and a smaller but still significant number would interpret “writing” as “fictional writing” (this is a general norm in English) and say Three Worlds Collide or one of the Jeffreyssai stories or something.
I have to disagree; in fact it wouldn’t even occur to me to interpret it that way, especially in this context.
I also don’t think many people would answer “HPMoR” to the question of what the best writing on Less Wrong is, since most people know it isn’t hosted here.
Three Worlds Collide has definitely had an impact greater than the average LW post. However, I am skeptical of the notion that its impact has been so great as to significantly distort people’s perceptions of how much of LW content is fiction, to the point of interpreting a discussion of the “best writing on LW” as being about fiction.
Interesting. You may be right. I think I will try to test these predictions out in person the next time I go to a meetup. I’ll let you know what my results are!