“I think it would be a waste, and very sad, if Eliezer had spent over a year writing enough high-quality material for a book and that material just stayed buried in Overcoming Bias’ archives, nearly forgotten in a matter of years. For a little more effort, he can produce books that more chances of making a difference.”
I agree, but Eli has already announced his intentions to rewrite most of the material, which will require a great deal of work.
“But I don’t believe that everybody who could be convinced, who could help is already on board.”
I certainly agree; it’s a question of which recruiting approach is the most viable. Publishing this kind of a book is essentially a shotgun approach; you hit a whole bunch of people with rational ideas and hope that a few of them stick. I was pointing out that 1), it is a shotgun approach, and 2), the spread of a dead-tree version is so wide that it’s unlikely to hit very many people.
“Imagine if back then you had seen an interesting review of Elizer’s book on Amazon and decided to check it out. I bet that would have been a great introduction.”
If Eli had published a book on rationalism back in 2003, it would currently be collecting dust on my bookshelf along with all the other books I’ve read several times over. It probably wouldn’t have drawn me into transhumanism.
“Many could learn from his book, I’m sure, and that could increase the quality of their contribution.”
The blog posts, so far as I can tell, are doing as well a job of teaching their readers as can reasonably be expected. We will need to prepare something for the next generation, but that’s caused by the nature of blogging, not some deficiency in Eli’s postings.
“I think it would be a waste, and very sad, if Eliezer had spent over a year writing enough high-quality material for a book and that material just stayed buried in Overcoming Bias’ archives, nearly forgotten in a matter of years. For a little more effort, he can produce books that more chances of making a difference.”
I agree, but Eli has already announced his intentions to rewrite most of the material, which will require a great deal of work.
“But I don’t believe that everybody who could be convinced, who could help is already on board.”
I certainly agree; it’s a question of which recruiting approach is the most viable. Publishing this kind of a book is essentially a shotgun approach; you hit a whole bunch of people with rational ideas and hope that a few of them stick. I was pointing out that 1), it is a shotgun approach, and 2), the spread of a dead-tree version is so wide that it’s unlikely to hit very many people.
“Imagine if back then you had seen an interesting review of Elizer’s book on Amazon and decided to check it out. I bet that would have been a great introduction.”
If Eli had published a book on rationalism back in 2003, it would currently be collecting dust on my bookshelf along with all the other books I’ve read several times over. It probably wouldn’t have drawn me into transhumanism.
“Many could learn from his book, I’m sure, and that could increase the quality of their contribution.”
The blog posts, so far as I can tell, are doing as well a job of teaching their readers as can reasonably be expected. We will need to prepare something for the next generation, but that’s caused by the nature of blogging, not some deficiency in Eli’s postings.