I admire your reasons for joining. It is easy to find a group or circle that does not challenge you and then rest on your laurels. Seeking out disagreement and criticism is a hard first step for a lot of people. But don’t worry… you will certainly find both here! Not that that is a bad thing.
I see you’ve already added to the Discussion forum. Good on you for diving in and starting some new conversation. If you have some ideas you want to share and get critiqued but feel they are not fully formed enough for a post of their own, try the Open Thread. Even Open Thread conversations can be quite engaging and constructive (and heated! Don’t forget heated).
Also, I don’t know if you’ve read any of the LW literature people tend to reference, but, given your interest in refining your ideas, this) set of posts might interest you.
Thanks for the guidance. It can be intimidating exposing your ideas to a new set of people. I’ve been reading things here on LW off and on for roughly a year. There is quite a bit of jargon on this site and I’ve been reading through as many sequences as I have time for to try and fill myself in. I find that even concepts I’m familiar with tend to have sub-context here that doesn’t quite allow me to fully understand some of the ideas being discussed. I have a fairy good grasp of map versus territory for example, but my understanding comes by way of The Precession of Simulacra by Jean Baudrillard, where in that book he argues that the territory no longer exists, and only the map is real. That is quite different from the arguments I’ve seen here postulating that we can somehow gain access to the true underlaying territory. Regardless, I expect that with enough reading, I’ll be able to contribute. I was a chef for 17 years, so heated debates don’t intimidate me I have a thick skin. I ask that people understand the ideas I have—not agree with me. I will give others the same curtesy. Again, thanks for the welcome. I’ll check out the links. Cheers.
Hello and welcome to LessWrong!
I admire your reasons for joining. It is easy to find a group or circle that does not challenge you and then rest on your laurels. Seeking out disagreement and criticism is a hard first step for a lot of people. But don’t worry… you will certainly find both here! Not that that is a bad thing.
I see you’ve already added to the Discussion forum. Good on you for diving in and starting some new conversation. If you have some ideas you want to share and get critiqued but feel they are not fully formed enough for a post of their own, try the Open Thread. Even Open Thread conversations can be quite engaging and constructive (and heated! Don’t forget heated).
Also, I don’t know if you’ve read any of the LW literature people tend to reference, but, given your interest in refining your ideas, this) set of posts might interest you.
Thanks for the guidance. It can be intimidating exposing your ideas to a new set of people. I’ve been reading things here on LW off and on for roughly a year. There is quite a bit of jargon on this site and I’ve been reading through as many sequences as I have time for to try and fill myself in. I find that even concepts I’m familiar with tend to have sub-context here that doesn’t quite allow me to fully understand some of the ideas being discussed. I have a fairy good grasp of map versus territory for example, but my understanding comes by way of The Precession of Simulacra by Jean Baudrillard, where in that book he argues that the territory no longer exists, and only the map is real. That is quite different from the arguments I’ve seen here postulating that we can somehow gain access to the true underlaying territory. Regardless, I expect that with enough reading, I’ll be able to contribute. I was a chef for 17 years, so heated debates don’t intimidate me I have a thick skin. I ask that people understand the ideas I have—not agree with me. I will give others the same curtesy. Again, thanks for the welcome. I’ll check out the links. Cheers.