LW users will use doctors but are also quite likely to go to uncredentialed smart people for advice. Posts on DIY covid vaccines were extremely well received. I know two community members who had cancer, both of which commissioned private research and feel it led to better outcomes for them (treatment was still done by doctors, but this informed who they saw and what they chose). The covid tag is full of people giving advice that was later vindicated by public health.
LessWrong has thought about this trade-off and definitively come down on the side of “let uncredentialed smart people take a shot”, knowing that those people face a lot of obstacles to doing good work.
...are you new here?
LW users will use doctors but are also quite likely to go to uncredentialed smart people for advice. Posts on DIY covid vaccines were extremely well received. I know two community members who had cancer, both of which commissioned private research and feel it led to better outcomes for them (treatment was still done by doctors, but this informed who they saw and what they chose). The covid tag is full of people giving advice that was later vindicated by public health.
LessWrong has thought about this trade-off and definitively come down on the side of “let uncredentialed smart people take a shot”, knowing that those people face a lot of obstacles to doing good work.
Which would be a refutation of my comment if I had said “definitely” instead of “probably”.