I think this, or something like this, should be in a place of prominence on LessWrong. The Best Of collection might not be the place, but it’s the place I can vote on, so I’d like to vote for it here.
I used “or something like this” above intentionally. The format of this post — an introduction of why these guidelines exist, short one or two sentence explanations of the guideline, and then expanded explanations with “ways you might feel when you’re about to break the X Guideline” — is excellent. It turns each guideline into a mini-lesson, which can be broken out and referenced independently. The introduction gives context for them all to hang together. The format is A+, fighting for S tier.
Why “something like this” instead of “this, exactly this” then? Each individual guideline is good, but they don’t feel like they’re the only set. I can imagine swapping basically any of them other than 0 and 1 out for something different and having something I liked just as much. I still look at 5 (“Aim for convergence on truth, and behave as if your interlocutors are also aiming for convergence on truth”) and internally wince. I imagine lots of people read it, mostly agreed with it, but wanted to replace or quibble with one or two of the guidelines, and from reading the comments there wasn’t a consensus on which line was out of place.
That seems like a good sign.
It’s interesting to me to contrast it with Elements Of Rationalist Discourse. Elements doesn’t resonate as much with me, and while some of that is Elements is not laid out as cleanly I also don’t agree with the list the same way. And yet, Elements was also upvoted highly. The people yearn for guidelines, and there wasn’t a clear favourite. Someday I might try my own hand at the genre, and I still consider myself to owe an expansion on my issues with 5.
I’m voting for this to be in the Best Of LessWrong collection. If there was a process to vote to make this or at least the introduction and Guidelines, In Brief into a sitewide default recommendation I would vote for that.
I think this, or something like this, should be in a place of prominence on LessWrong. The Best Of collection might not be the place, but it’s the place I can vote on, so I’d like to vote for it here.
I used “or something like this” above intentionally. The format of this post — an introduction of why these guidelines exist, short one or two sentence explanations of the guideline, and then expanded explanations with “ways you might feel when you’re about to break the X Guideline” — is excellent. It turns each guideline into a mini-lesson, which can be broken out and referenced independently. The introduction gives context for them all to hang together. The format is A+, fighting for S tier.
Why “something like this” instead of “this, exactly this” then? Each individual guideline is good, but they don’t feel like they’re the only set. I can imagine swapping basically any of them other than 0 and 1 out for something different and having something I liked just as much. I still look at 5 (“Aim for convergence on truth, and behave as if your interlocutors are also aiming for convergence on truth”) and internally wince. I imagine lots of people read it, mostly agreed with it, but wanted to replace or quibble with one or two of the guidelines, and from reading the comments there wasn’t a consensus on which line was out of place.
That seems like a good sign.
It’s interesting to me to contrast it with Elements Of Rationalist Discourse. Elements doesn’t resonate as much with me, and while some of that is Elements is not laid out as cleanly I also don’t agree with the list the same way. And yet, Elements was also upvoted highly. The people yearn for guidelines, and there wasn’t a clear favourite. Someday I might try my own hand at the genre, and I still consider myself to owe an expansion on my issues with 5.
I’m voting for this to be in the Best Of LessWrong collection. If there was a process to vote to make this or at least the introduction and Guidelines, In Brief into a sitewide default recommendation I would vote for that.