Good points. I agree that the page should contain a guide to the sequences. However, I think we should also incorporate content that isn’t currently in the sequences index, since some of our best posts are stand-alone articles that were written more recently (and by people other than Eliezer). For example, The Least Convenient Possible World is a foundational post that is highly celebrated and frequently quoted, but it isn’t a part of any sequence.
I strongly agree. Looking through the first few pages of the all-time highest-rated posts, it’s surprising how many of them contain implicit dependencies. For example, even Yvain’s standalone post Schelling fences on slippery slopes contains an implicit reference that leads all the way back to CFAI via the Gandhi example. That said, “has a dependency” is not a binary condition that disqualifies a post from being accessible, since one can still enjoy Yvain’s post without knowing the reference. So some good taste will probably be required to determine if a post is accessible to people who don’t know the prerequisites.
I was thinking of a coarser dependence structure: packaging posts into collections, ordering them within collections, and suggesting other collections or original sequences as prerequisites for new collections.
Could be implemented using some kind of “call for post suggestions” threads that specify a topic for a collection to be constructed, or central posts that set the topic. Note that even Yvain’s summer 2011 post sequence isn’t collected into a list accessible from the wiki (IIRC).
Good points. I agree that the page should contain a guide to the sequences. However, I think we should also incorporate content that isn’t currently in the sequences index, since some of our best posts are stand-alone articles that were written more recently (and by people other than Eliezer). For example, The Least Convenient Possible World is a foundational post that is highly celebrated and frequently quoted, but it isn’t a part of any sequence.
A systematic collection (that recognizes implicit dependencies) of important non-Sequence posts would be a very good resource.
I strongly agree. Looking through the first few pages of the all-time highest-rated posts, it’s surprising how many of them contain implicit dependencies. For example, even Yvain’s standalone post Schelling fences on slippery slopes contains an implicit reference that leads all the way back to CFAI via the Gandhi example. That said, “has a dependency” is not a binary condition that disqualifies a post from being accessible, since one can still enjoy Yvain’s post without knowing the reference. So some good taste will probably be required to determine if a post is accessible to people who don’t know the prerequisites.
I was thinking of a coarser dependence structure: packaging posts into collections, ordering them within collections, and suggesting other collections or original sequences as prerequisites for new collections.
Could be implemented using some kind of “call for post suggestions” threads that specify a topic for a collection to be constructed, or central posts that set the topic. Note that even Yvain’s summer 2011 post sequence isn’t collected into a list accessible from the wiki (IIRC).
Interesting point. I tend to think of the sequences as “all good articles”, most of which happen to be in specific subsequences.