I think that people should write with more emotion. A lot more emotion!
Emotion is bayesian evidence. It communicates things.
One could also propose making it not full of rants, but I don’t think that would be an improvement. The rants are important. The rants contain data. They reveal Eliezer’s cognitive state and his assessment of the state of play. Not ranting would leave important bits out and give a meaningfully misleading impression.
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The fact that this is the post we got, as opposed to a different (in many ways better) post, is a reflection of the fact that our Earth is failing to understand what we are facing. It is failing to look the problem in the eye, let alone make real attempts at solutions.
It frustrates me that people don’t write with more emotion. Why don’t they? Are they uncomfortable being vulnerable? Maybe that’s part of it. I think the bigger part is just that it is uncomfortable to deviate from social norms. That’s different from the discomfort from vulnerability. If everyone else is trying to be professional and collected and stuff and write more dispassionately, and you are out there getting all excited and angry and intrigued and self-conscious, you’ll know that you are going against the grain.
But all of those emotions are useful though. Again, it communicates things. Sure, it is something that can be taken overboard. There is such a thing as expressing too much emotion. But I think we have a ways to go before we get there.
(Am I expressing enough emotion here? Am I being a hypocrite? I’m note sure. I’m probably not doing a great job at expressing emotions here. Which makes me realize that it’s probably, to a non-trivial extent, a skill that needs to be practiced. You have to introspect, think about what emotions you are feeling, and think about which of them would be useful to express.)
I think that people should write with more emotion. A lot more emotion!
Emotion is bayesian evidence. It communicates things.
It frustrates me that people don’t write with more emotion. Why don’t they? Are they uncomfortable being vulnerable? Maybe that’s part of it. I think the bigger part is just that it is uncomfortable to deviate from social norms. That’s different from the discomfort from vulnerability. If everyone else is trying to be professional and collected and stuff and write more dispassionately, and you are out there getting all excited and angry and intrigued and self-conscious, you’ll know that you are going against the grain.
But all of those emotions are useful though. Again, it communicates things. Sure, it is something that can be taken overboard. There is such a thing as expressing too much emotion. But I think we have a ways to go before we get there.
(Am I expressing enough emotion here? Am I being a hypocrite? I’m note sure. I’m probably not doing a great job at expressing emotions here. Which makes me realize that it’s probably, to a non-trivial extent, a skill that needs to be practiced. You have to introspect, think about what emotions you are feeling, and think about which of them would be useful to express.)