Accurate arguments still need to be delightful and convincing
You can’t just post two paragraphs of actionable advice and expect people to read it. You can’t just explain things in intuitive language and expect to convert the skeptical. Barring exceptional circumstances, you can’t get straight to the point. System 2 takes time to initialize.
Blogging is a special format. You’re sort of writing for a self-selected niche. But you’re also competing for people’s attention when they’re randomly browsing. Having a strong brand as a writer (Scott, Eliezer, Zvi, and Gwern are examples) maybe helps people a little more likely to engage.
Otherwise, you’re pretty much starting out in the background and trying to stand out.
There’s a funnel. Your username, title, the karma and date of your post, and the number of comments determine whether you get clicked on in the first place.
Then you have to get the user to start reading and keep reading, and to commit to not just skim, but to actually read the sentences. I skim all the time. I glance over a post to see if it seems interesting, well-written, if it draws me in. Otherwise, I’m gone in a heartbeat.
And if you can convince the reader to read your sentences, and to get all the way through, then you need to take them through a psychological process that’s not just about efficiently conveying an idea. You need to build their curiosity, delight them, connect with them, teach them something new or make sense of something old and inchoate, convince them, and ideally get them interested to keep talking and thinking about it.
It’s not enough to be right. You have to be interesting and convincing.
One of the issues in media is that they optimize for being interesting and convincing, often at the expense of being right.
We don’t want to do that. But that means we have a harder job to do, because we’re not allowed to skip being interesting and convincing. We have to do all three, not just two. And that means we need to spend time understanding how to create interest and explain things in a convincing way. That can seem like the “dark arts,” but I don’t think it is, as long as we’re not throwing out the need to be accurate and useful and kind, and as long as we’re not engaging in dirty tricks.
Accurate arguments still need to be delightful and convincing
You can’t just post two paragraphs of actionable advice and expect people to read it. You can’t just explain things in intuitive language and expect to convert the skeptical. Barring exceptional circumstances, you can’t get straight to the point. System 2 takes time to initialize.
Blogging is a special format. You’re sort of writing for a self-selected niche. But you’re also competing for people’s attention when they’re randomly browsing. Having a strong brand as a writer (Scott, Eliezer, Zvi, and Gwern are examples) maybe helps people a little more likely to engage.
Otherwise, you’re pretty much starting out in the background and trying to stand out.
There’s a funnel. Your username, title, the karma and date of your post, and the number of comments determine whether you get clicked on in the first place.
Then you have to get the user to start reading and keep reading, and to commit to not just skim, but to actually read the sentences. I skim all the time. I glance over a post to see if it seems interesting, well-written, if it draws me in. Otherwise, I’m gone in a heartbeat.
And if you can convince the reader to read your sentences, and to get all the way through, then you need to take them through a psychological process that’s not just about efficiently conveying an idea. You need to build their curiosity, delight them, connect with them, teach them something new or make sense of something old and inchoate, convince them, and ideally get them interested to keep talking and thinking about it.
It’s not enough to be right. You have to be interesting and convincing.
One of the issues in media is that they optimize for being interesting and convincing, often at the expense of being right.
We don’t want to do that. But that means we have a harder job to do, because we’re not allowed to skip being interesting and convincing. We have to do all three, not just two. And that means we need to spend time understanding how to create interest and explain things in a convincing way. That can seem like the “dark arts,” but I don’t think it is, as long as we’re not throwing out the need to be accurate and useful and kind, and as long as we’re not engaging in dirty tricks.