So while fiction is certainly not predominant, it’s definitely had a presence in the community. If you count HPMoR or Luminosity, which—while not actually on Less Wrong at this stage (I think)-- are pretty clearly connected—I’d say that fiction has left a very, very strong impression indeed on the community as a whole.
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!
Excuse me, but almost all writing on Less Wrong is nonfiction. Shouldn’t you have simply asked for the best writing on Less Wrong?
No, not if you want to find out their best pick of the nonfiction. Since a request for the ‘best’ tends to return a single result it only takes one instance of fiction to completely alter the expected result, assuming that single example has any potential for popularity.
The objection is not to the category restriction, but to the connotative implication of the title that the “fiction” category is significantly populated.
Excuse me, but almost all writing on Less Wrong is nonfiction. Shouldn’t you have simply asked for the best writing on Less Wrong?
(I meant to ask this in the linked post, but forgot.)
To be fair, Three Worlds Collide is venerated by many. The fiction tag has multiple pages of results.
So while fiction is certainly not predominant, it’s definitely had a presence in the community. If you count HPMoR or Luminosity, which—while not actually on Less Wrong at this stage (I think)-- are pretty clearly connected—I’d say that fiction has left a very, very strong impression indeed on the community as a whole.
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!
No, not if you want to find out their best pick of the nonfiction. Since a request for the ‘best’ tends to return a single result it only takes one instance of fiction to completely alter the expected result, assuming that single example has any potential for popularity.
The objection is not to the category restriction, but to the connotative implication of the title that the “fiction” category is significantly populated.
Personally, I see it as a fair tradeoff: one implies a falsehood in order to prime people to give better answers to a specific question.