You are interested in communicating with “intellectual elites”; these people have their own communities and channels of communication. Instead of asking what those channels are and how you can become part of them, you instead ask how you can lure those people away from their communities, so that they’ll devote their limited free time to posting on LW instead.
Attracting academics to Less Wrong is not incompatible with approaching them through academic channels (which MIRI has been doing), and does not require separating them from academic communities (which I doubt MIRI intends to do).
But instead of conceding that academia might have some advantages over LW and thus trying to communicate with academics within their system, you proclaim LessWrong to be “the highest-quality relatively-general-interest form on the web” (which, to me, is obviously false) and then you ask actual accomplished intellectuals to spend their time conversing with a bunch of intelligent-but-undereducated twenty-somethings who nonetheless think they know everything.
Point me to where Luke denied that academia has any advantages over LW. If you’re going to claim that LW is obviously not “the highest-quality relatively-general-interest forum on the web”, it would help your case to provide an obvious counterexample (academic channels themselves are generally not on the web, and LW has some advantages over them, even if the reverse is also true). LW is also not as homogeneous as you appear to believe; plenty of us are academics.
I just think it’s unreasonable to assume that “intellectual elites” (both inside and outside of academia) would care to spend time on LW, or that it would be good for those people if they did.
It is at least as unreasonable to claim without justification that it is impossible to attract intellectual elites to LW, or that it would be bad for those people if they did.
Point me to where Luke denied that academia has any advantages over LW. If you’re going to claim that LW is obviously not “the highest-quality relatively-general-interest forum on the web”, it would help your case to provide an obvious counterexample (academic channels themselves are generally not on the web, and LW has some advantages over them, even if the reverse is also true). LW is also not as homogeneous as you appear to believe; plenty of us are academics.
You’re straw-manning here. Not conceding isn’t the same thing as denying. To not concede something, one just has to omit the concession from one’s writing. But this is just quibbling. The real issue is the attitude, or the arrogance, that LW may have with respect to academia. Nobody wants to waste time justifying themselves to a bunch of arrogant amateurs after all.
Anyway, some web channels where academics hang out:
(Cracked.com probably does a better job of being a smart, general interest forum than Less Wrong, it’s a great deal more popular at least. But being the highest quality popular forum is a bit like being the smartest termite in the world. Specialized forums are where the elite action is.)
What’s up with this dichotomy between LW and academia? I’m sure plenty of people on here have high-level degrees or work in some academic field.
Also: What are a few examples of the arrogance you see against academia on this forum? I would actually express the opposite view, and say that LW is pretty friendly to academia, with people citing mainstream books and articles all the time, etc. Not much fringe stuff going on here as far as I can tell.
What’s up with this dichotomy between LW and academia? I’m sure plenty of people on here have high-level degrees or work in some academic field.
Some of the people on LW have academic degrees or work at academic jobs, but I can’t think of many active posters who seem to be on the track of becoming the sort of academician whom other academicians will recognize and pay attention to.
My impression of the typical LessWronger is someone who might be clever enough to be a run-of-the-mill academic worker, but who didn’t get on with the program where they’d basically need to put the majority of their time and output into the academic machine to get any hope of establishing a career. The equally clever people in academia don’t have spare time to hang out at LW and actually do eventually get quite a lot better at their chosen thing than the average LW’er at any of their miscellaneous interesting things of the week. Meanwhile, LW is the akrasia culture, where the sort of highly focused and high-achieving people who end up making a name for themselves in modern academia are invisible, and the people hanging out here have no way of picking up their cultural habits. Instead, there’s a large peer group of low-achieving procrastinators who like to post interesting forum messages to identify with and unconsciously learn habits from.
You’re straw-manning here. Not conceding isn’t the same thing as denying. To not concede something, one just has to omit the concession from one’s writing.
I’m not sure why anyone would expect a post about trying to attract academics to LW to mention that academia has some advantages over LW. It’s just not relevant to the subject. The fact that MIRI has been increasingly making use of academic channels is an implicit concession that they have advantages.
Anyway, some web channels where academics hang out: …
Ok, yes, there are web-based academic channels. StackExchange is even a good contender for highest-quality relatively-general-interest forum on the web.
Attracting academics to Less Wrong is not incompatible with approaching them through academic channels (which MIRI has been doing), and does not require separating them from academic communities (which I doubt MIRI intends to do).
Point me to where Luke denied that academia has any advantages over LW. If you’re going to claim that LW is obviously not “the highest-quality relatively-general-interest forum on the web”, it would help your case to provide an obvious counterexample (academic channels themselves are generally not on the web, and LW has some advantages over them, even if the reverse is also true). LW is also not as homogeneous as you appear to believe; plenty of us are academics.
It is at least as unreasonable to claim without justification that it is impossible to attract intellectual elites to LW, or that it would be bad for those people if they did.
You’re straw-manning here. Not conceding isn’t the same thing as denying. To not concede something, one just has to omit the concession from one’s writing. But this is just quibbling. The real issue is the attitude, or the arrogance, that LW may have with respect to academia. Nobody wants to waste time justifying themselves to a bunch of arrogant amateurs after all.
Anyway, some web channels where academics hang out:
MathOverflow
LambdaTheUltimate
The arXiv
StackExchange
The N-Category Cafe http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/
ScienceBlogs
(Cracked.com probably does a better job of being a smart, general interest forum than Less Wrong, it’s a great deal more popular at least. But being the highest quality popular forum is a bit like being the smartest termite in the world. Specialized forums are where the elite action is.)
Another channel where academics hang out:
Less Wrong
What’s up with this dichotomy between LW and academia? I’m sure plenty of people on here have high-level degrees or work in some academic field.
Also: What are a few examples of the arrogance you see against academia on this forum? I would actually express the opposite view, and say that LW is pretty friendly to academia, with people citing mainstream books and articles all the time, etc. Not much fringe stuff going on here as far as I can tell.
Some of the people on LW have academic degrees or work at academic jobs, but I can’t think of many active posters who seem to be on the track of becoming the sort of academician whom other academicians will recognize and pay attention to.
My impression of the typical LessWronger is someone who might be clever enough to be a run-of-the-mill academic worker, but who didn’t get on with the program where they’d basically need to put the majority of their time and output into the academic machine to get any hope of establishing a career. The equally clever people in academia don’t have spare time to hang out at LW and actually do eventually get quite a lot better at their chosen thing than the average LW’er at any of their miscellaneous interesting things of the week. Meanwhile, LW is the akrasia culture, where the sort of highly focused and high-achieving people who end up making a name for themselves in modern academia are invisible, and the people hanging out here have no way of picking up their cultural habits. Instead, there’s a large peer group of low-achieving procrastinators who like to post interesting forum messages to identify with and unconsciously learn habits from.
I’m not sure why anyone would expect a post about trying to attract academics to LW to mention that academia has some advantages over LW. It’s just not relevant to the subject. The fact that MIRI has been increasingly making use of academic channels is an implicit concession that they have advantages.
Ok, yes, there are web-based academic channels. StackExchange is even a good contender for highest-quality relatively-general-interest forum on the web.
(Cracked? Are you kidding?)