Aesthetics of rationality—what an interesting concept!
On one hand, it intuitively make sense. For example, obscurantist writing feels clearly anti-rationalist to me.
On the other hand, it feels like using this perspective too much leads to Hollywood rationality. The rational color scheme is grayscale, the rational font is sans-serif, the rational music is a rhythmic march, the rational speech is stark and technical, the rational taste is Soylent, the rational sex position is missionary, the rational emotion is boredom, the rational writing style is textbook.
Also, the objection against sounding like a black nationalist or a nazi bodybuilder sounds to me more like classism than like a concern about rationality. (Although, some classes are statistically more rational than others.) Should we uphold the educated middle class norms of discourse? Maybe. Maybe not. Status is a concern, but so is fun. And I think the language did not hurt the clarity of the message, it rather helped it.
Here I think the following words of Constantine the Philosopher are appropriate:
Which is interesting, because Gwern.net/LW2 (there’s a lot of overlap in their design) look little like Overcoming Bias does or LW1 did, and those were the heydays of rationalists. (In designing Gwern.net, I’ve tended to look to English Wikipedia & Art Deco, rather than anything one might associate with the Greco-Romans or the Logical Positivists—IMO, these websites do not look like Isotype or Bauhaus.)
Aesthetics of rationality—what an interesting concept!
On one hand, it intuitively make sense. For example, obscurantist writing feels clearly anti-rationalist to me.
On the other hand, it feels like using this perspective too much leads to Hollywood rationality. The rational color scheme is grayscale, the rational font is sans-serif, the rational music is a rhythmic march, the rational speech is stark and technical, the rational taste is Soylent, the rational sex position is missionary, the rational emotion is boredom, the rational writing style is textbook.
Also, the objection against sounding like a black nationalist or a nazi bodybuilder sounds to me more like classism than like a concern about rationality. (Although, some classes are statistically more rational than others.) Should we uphold the educated middle class norms of discourse? Maybe. Maybe not. Status is a concern, but so is fun. And I think the language did not hurt the clarity of the message, it rather helped it.
Here I think the following words of Constantine the Philosopher are appropriate:
ⱈⱁⱋⱘ ⱄⰾⱁⰲⰵⱄⱏ ⱂⱔⱅⱐ ⰻⰸⰴⱃⰵⱋⰻ
ⱄⱏ ⱃⰰⰸⱆⰿⱁⰿⱐ ⱄⰲⱁⰻⰿⱐ ⰳⰾ̅ⰰⱅⰻ,
ⰴⰰ ⰻ ⰲⱐⱄⰵ ⰱⱃⰰⱅⱐⱑ ⱃⰰⰸⱆⰿⱑⱙⱅⱏ,
ⱀⰵⰶⰵ ⱅⱐⰿⱘ ⱄⰾⱁⰲⰵⱄⱏ ⱀⰵⱃⰰⰸⱆⰿⱐⱀⱏ.
I would rather say five words
Speaking with my mind
That all brethren can understand
Than myriad words incomprehensible
You’re half right…
Gwern’s site design is extremely “rationalist” to me, though I don’t see that as a bad thing. The site itself looks beautiful.
Which is interesting, because Gwern.net/LW2 (there’s a lot of overlap in their design) look little like Overcoming Bias does or LW1 did, and those were the heydays of rationalists. (In designing Gwern.net, I’ve tended to look to English Wikipedia & Art Deco, rather than anything one might associate with the Greco-Romans or the Logical Positivists—IMO, these websites do not look like Isotype or Bauhaus.)