On the title—the idea was, for this post specifically, to sketch the general principles that define both the space of reasonable approaches and likely outcomes in biological problems. I do think I did an underwhelming job demonstrating that link, and if that is what you mean or close to it, then I agree with you and will take it as a reminder to work on cohesion/full clarity of purpose in future posts. (If it’s not, I invite further clarification.)
As for whether it’s appropriate for LW… well, since I have a fairly good idea of what I’m going to write on the subject in the future, I think it is, because I intend to keep it targeted and relevant to issues the community has interest in—offering either another angle from which to consider them, or more background information from which to evaluate them, or ideally both. As I’ve said before, I’ve no desire to write a textbook, and there’s plenty of other places on the internet we could go if we wanted to read the equivalent of one.
However, if you don’t think that is enough to be relevant here, I would very much like to hear what, if anything, would make such a set of posts relevant to you (not trying to shift the reference frame—I mean relevant to you in the context of LW). The large positive response I received previously and in this post indicates to me that it’s worth continuing in some form.
As for whether it’s appropriate for LW… well, since I have a fairly good idea of what I’m going to write on the subject in the future, I think it is, because I intend to keep it targeted and relevant to issues the community has interest in—offering either another angle from which to consider them, or more background information from which to evaluate them, or ideally both. As I’ve said before, I’ve no desire to write a textbook, and there’s plenty of other places on the internet we could go if we wanted to read the equivalent of one.
To me it seems sufficiently relevant for a front page post. Just not a promoted front page post. :)
I agree. I didn’t actually expect it to get promoted, since it doesn’t fit the pattern of things I’ve seen on the very front. I’ll show how new I am here and ask, though—Eliezer’s comment read like he had been presented with some expectation that this be promoted. Is that because posts that get upvoted this far typically (or always) are?
Since I didn’t ask, or state that I thought it should be, it seemed a bit out-of-the-blue, which did then and is still causing me to try to figure out whether his objection was only to the idea of promotion, or if he objected to promotion because he thought it shouldn’t be here at all.
On the title—the idea was, for this post specifically, to sketch the general principles that define both the space of reasonable approaches and likely outcomes in biological problems. I do think I did an underwhelming job demonstrating that link, and if that is what you mean or close to it, then I agree with you and will take it as a reminder to work on cohesion/full clarity of purpose in future posts. (If it’s not, I invite further clarification.)
As for whether it’s appropriate for LW… well, since I have a fairly good idea of what I’m going to write on the subject in the future, I think it is, because I intend to keep it targeted and relevant to issues the community has interest in—offering either another angle from which to consider them, or more background information from which to evaluate them, or ideally both. As I’ve said before, I’ve no desire to write a textbook, and there’s plenty of other places on the internet we could go if we wanted to read the equivalent of one.
However, if you don’t think that is enough to be relevant here, I would very much like to hear what, if anything, would make such a set of posts relevant to you (not trying to shift the reference frame—I mean relevant to you in the context of LW). The large positive response I received previously and in this post indicates to me that it’s worth continuing in some form.
To me it seems sufficiently relevant for a front page post. Just not a promoted front page post. :)
I agree. I didn’t actually expect it to get promoted, since it doesn’t fit the pattern of things I’ve seen on the very front. I’ll show how new I am here and ask, though—Eliezer’s comment read like he had been presented with some expectation that this be promoted. Is that because posts that get upvoted this far typically (or always) are?
Since I didn’t ask, or state that I thought it should be, it seemed a bit out-of-the-blue, which did then and is still causing me to try to figure out whether his objection was only to the idea of promotion, or if he objected to promotion because he thought it shouldn’t be here at all.