Meta: I think “Where does LessWrong stand financially” is a very good question, and I never knew I wanted a clear answer to it until now (my model always was something like “It gets money from CFAR & MIRI, not sure how that is organized otoh”). However, the way you phrased the question is confusing to me, and you go into several tangents along the way, which causes me to only understand part of what you’re asking about.
I can easily apologize for my tangents. I do tend to wander. However I can also easily blame my zen collapse from some years back. It used to be a 6-degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon world, but now things too often seem to me to be only one or even zero degrees separated. It’s the same thing when you look at it that way?
Not easy to figure out how to fix my question. And if I figured out how to improve it, then I’m not even sure I should fix it or just stay here in the comments, though I see it is possible to edit the original question.
So… Another way to word the question along your lines could be “How are the (visible) conversational flows affected by the (less visible) money flows?” (If I do modify the original, does it preserve old versions to clarify replies that will then seem out of context?)
Take the google as an example for the main topic? The google started with one set of goals and even had the motto of “Don’t be evil.” Then the money started flowing and the business mutated. I actually think the google’s de-facto motto these days is “All your attentions is belong to us [so we can sell your eyeballs to the paying advertisers].” But there is a fundamental inconsistency there. Advertisers do not want to pay for the most critical thinkers reasoning based on the best data. Advertisers want obedient consumers who will obey the ads, whether they are selling deodorant or stinky politicians. (In another (still simplified) perspective on that subtopic of advertising (bridging to money), the costs are extremely high for the final increments of quality to produce the best products that can then be advertised as being the best. In contrast, the costs are much lower for advertising that portrays legally adequate products as the best.)
Meta: I think “Where does LessWrong stand financially” is a very good question, and I never knew I wanted a clear answer to it until now (my model always was something like “It gets money from CFAR & MIRI, not sure how that is organized otoh”). However, the way you phrased the question is confusing to me, and you go into several tangents along the way, which causes me to only understand part of what you’re asking about.
I can easily apologize for my tangents. I do tend to wander. However I can also easily blame my zen collapse from some years back. It used to be a 6-degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon world, but now things too often seem to me to be only one or even zero degrees separated. It’s the same thing when you look at it that way?
Not easy to figure out how to fix my question. And if I figured out how to improve it, then I’m not even sure I should fix it or just stay here in the comments, though I see it is possible to edit the original question.
So… Another way to word the question along your lines could be “How are the (visible) conversational flows affected by the (less visible) money flows?” (If I do modify the original, does it preserve old versions to clarify replies that will then seem out of context?)
Take the google as an example for the main topic? The google started with one set of goals and even had the motto of “Don’t be evil.” Then the money started flowing and the business mutated. I actually think the google’s de-facto motto these days is “All your attentions is belong to us [so we can sell your eyeballs to the paying advertisers].” But there is a fundamental inconsistency there. Advertisers do not want to pay for the most critical thinkers reasoning based on the best data. Advertisers want obedient consumers who will obey the ads, whether they are selling deodorant or stinky politicians. (In another (still simplified) perspective on that subtopic of advertising (bridging to money), the costs are extremely high for the final increments of quality to produce the best products that can then be advertised as being the best. In contrast, the costs are much lower for advertising that portrays legally adequate products as the best.)