“I think it can be taken for granted that people on this site have an elevated sense of skepticism”
I disagree. Being a participant on this site implies that one has accepted some or all of the central premises of the community: that we can significantly improve our lives by thinking differently, that we should be willing to think and behave in ways that are very counter-intuitive to the average person, and that we can learn to do all of this by reading and talking on a website.
A great many ‘normal’ people would dismiss Less Wrong as a silly venture. Likewise, they’d be willing to dismiss something that looks like a scam immediately, without any thought at all. Those of us who pride ourselves on being clever, being willing to embrace an idea that other people would reject, and want to exploit loopholes and inefficiencies that other people have missed? I suspect we’re less skeptical than the average person.
Being on the site only signals that we want to be rational, and like to think that we are. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re good at it.
“I think it can be taken for granted that people on this site have an elevated sense of skepticism”
I disagree. Being a participant on this site implies that one has accepted some or all of the central premises of the community: that we can significantly improve our lives by thinking differently, that we should be willing to think and behave in ways that are very counter-intuitive to the average person, and that we can learn to do all of this by reading and talking on a website.
A great many ‘normal’ people would dismiss Less Wrong as a silly venture. Likewise, they’d be willing to dismiss something that looks like a scam immediately, without any thought at all. Those of us who pride ourselves on being clever, being willing to embrace an idea that other people would reject, and want to exploit loopholes and inefficiencies that other people have missed? I suspect we’re less skeptical than the average person.
Being on the site only signals that we want to be rational, and like to think that we are. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re good at it.