Don’t lose “much” informational content? Alex, you’re a goddamned alignment researcher… Do you want them to spend time fretting about exactly how to phrase their comment so as to not hurt your feelings?
This is a straw interpretation of what I’m trying to communicate. This argument isn’t addressing the actual norm I plan on enforcing, and seems to instead cast me as walling myself off from anything I might not like.
The norm I’m actually proposing is that if you see an easy way to make an abrasive thing less abrasive, you take it. If the thing still has to be abrasive, that’s fine. Remember, I said
needlessly abrasive
Am I to believe that if people can’t say the thing that first comes to mind in the heat of the moment, there isn’t any way to express the same information? What am I plausibly losing out on by not hearing “stooping to X” instead of “resorting to X”? That Said first thought of “stooping”? That he’s passionate about typography?
I don’t see many reasonable situations where this kind of statement
The thing you’re doing really doesn’t work, because [reason X]. You should do [alternative] because [reason Y].
doesn’t suffice (again, this isn’t a “template”; it’s just an example of a reasonable level of frankness).
I’ve been actively engaged with LW for a good while, and this issue hasn’t come up until now (which makes me think it’s uncommon, thankfully). Additionally, I’ve worked with people in the alignment research community. No one has seemed to have trouble communicating efficiently in a minimally abrasive fashion, and I don’t see why that will change.
I don’t currently plan on commenting further on this thread, although I thank both you and Said for your contributions and certainly hope you keep commenting on my posts!
This is a straw interpretation of what I’m trying to communicate. This argument isn’t addressing the actual norm I plan on enforcing, and seems to instead cast me as walling myself off from anything I might not like.
The norm I’m actually proposing is that if you see an easy way to make an abrasive thing less abrasive, you take it. If the thing still has to be abrasive, that’s fine. Remember, I said
Am I to believe that if people can’t say the thing that first comes to mind in the heat of the moment, there isn’t any way to express the same information? What am I plausibly losing out on by not hearing “stooping to X” instead of “resorting to X”? That Said first thought of “stooping”? That he’s passionate about typography?
I don’t see many reasonable situations where this kind of statement
doesn’t suffice (again, this isn’t a “template”; it’s just an example of a reasonable level of frankness).
I’ve been actively engaged with LW for a good while, and this issue hasn’t come up until now (which makes me think it’s uncommon, thankfully). Additionally, I’ve worked with people in the alignment research community. No one has seemed to have trouble communicating efficiently in a minimally abrasive fashion, and I don’t see why that will change.
I don’t currently plan on commenting further on this thread, although I thank both you and Said for your contributions and certainly hope you keep commenting on my posts!