I didn’t at the time, I went back and did so. Also, that one didn’t trigger my “ugh! content-free marketing” filter as strongly, likely because it was purely declarative. This one starts off on a very wrong foot with rhetorical questions that serve no purpose except to try to create fake rapport to help sell the later pitch.
I did have marketing in mind, yes, but the first paragraph also serves an obviously useful purpose: it declares what audience we are trying to address. People who are not interested in existential risks or the Visiting Fellows program probably won’t be as interested in volunteering, and it saves everyone a lot of time to state that up front.
Did you also downvote http://lesswrong.com/lw/29c/be_a_visiting_fellow_at_the_singularity_institute/ ?
I didn’t at the time, I went back and did so. Also, that one didn’t trigger my “ugh! content-free marketing” filter as strongly, likely because it was purely declarative. This one starts off on a very wrong foot with rhetorical questions that serve no purpose except to try to create fake rapport to help sell the later pitch.
I did have marketing in mind, yes, but the first paragraph also serves an obviously useful purpose: it declares what audience we are trying to address. People who are not interested in existential risks or the Visiting Fellows program probably won’t be as interested in volunteering, and it saves everyone a lot of time to state that up front.