I think this works at universities because teachers are paid to grade things (they wouldn’t do it otherwise) and students get some legible-to-the-world certificate once they graduate.
Like, we already have a wealth of curriculum / as much content for newbies as they can stand; the thing that’s missing is the peer reading group and mentors. We could probably construct peer reading groups (my simple idea is that you basically put people into groups based on what <month> they join, varying the duration until you get groups of the right size, and then you have some private-to-that-group forum / comment system / whatever), but I don’t think we have the supply of mentors. [This is a crux—if someone thinks they have supply here or funding for it, I want to hear about it.]
You are implying that blind-leading-the-blind is good, not bad, here, correct? I’m interested to hear more of your thoughts on why that will result in collective intelligence and not collective decoherence; it seems plausible to me, but some swarm algorithms work and some don’t.
I’m claiming that blind-leading-the-blind can work at all, and is preferable to a low-karma section containing both newbies and long time members whose low karma reflects quality issues. Skilled mentorship is almost certainly better, but I don’t think that’s available at the necessary scale.
I think this works at universities because teachers are paid to grade things (they wouldn’t do it otherwise) and students get some legible-to-the-world certificate once they graduate.
Like, we already have a wealth of curriculum / as much content for newbies as they can stand; the thing that’s missing is the peer reading group and mentors. We could probably construct peer reading groups (my simple idea is that you basically put people into groups based on what <month> they join, varying the duration until you get groups of the right size, and then you have some private-to-that-group forum / comment system / whatever), but I don’t think we have the supply of mentors. [This is a crux—if someone thinks they have supply here or funding for it, I want to hear about it.]
I think the peer thing is pretty good, and recreates the blind-leading-the-blind aspect of early lesswrong.
You are implying that blind-leading-the-blind is good, not bad, here, correct? I’m interested to hear more of your thoughts on why that will result in collective intelligence and not collective decoherence; it seems plausible to me, but some swarm algorithms work and some don’t.
I’m claiming that blind-leading-the-blind can work at all, and is preferable to a low-karma section containing both newbies and long time members whose low karma reflects quality issues. Skilled mentorship is almost certainly better, but I don’t think that’s available at the necessary scale.