It’s hard to skim I don’t think these are necessarily mutually exclusive, but we might have to work with alternative formats. But that’s a good idea anyway. Here’s an example for Bostrom’s Astronomical Waste.
It’s hard to distinguish sincere claims from hyperbolic ones This is not really a problem if they’re being honest around it. I’m recommending being serious about your silliness, not letting go of your seriousness.
All of your favorite writers probably use it already to some degree. Scott Alexander for instance has explicitly talked about using “microhumor”, which can be a combination of hyperbole and hedging (or hypobole? Maybe that’s what this skill should be called.)
This can be more challenging for non-native speakers, in both the cultural and language sense. But that’s also a tradeoff with, for example, jargon usage.
People might get away with a response of “I was clearly joking” when you provide critique Yes, they might. There is no language in which it is impossible to write bad programs. If there is such a confusion, they can be transparent about the point of the tone.
It’s hard to reference There are two reasons for this. One is the “can’t skim” objection addressed earlier. The other is optics. I don’t have much to say if you’re balancing optics. Damn Moloch.
I find this style annoying/insulting Check if it might be worth informing this aesthetic, given the benefits. Also, as noted earlier, a lot of your favorite writers might be using it already, so well that you don’t notice it. Which requires practice.
If you’re reasonably practiced at it and still think it’s net negative, I’m interested in hearing your objection!
Writing Objections
It’s hard to structure I think this is true, but not incredibly so. The costs diminish. It might even come easier to you.
It looks weird/silly I’d say in a good way, when done right. That’s a feature.
I’d rather just state my credences seriously instead of these acrobatics Nate has a post called Confidence All The Way Up. It’s a pretty great post, about covering each layer of uncertainty with meta-certainty, all the way up. But it doesn’t have many pointers for communicating a summary of many layers succinctly. A facetious tone is a stickier and concise way of communicating your imprecision than writing out several layers of uncertainty by hand. It’s (arguably) less distracting. Importantly, it’s less painful, and so you’re more likely to actually do it. Additionally, it’s pretty well-known that precision of content alone does not translate to precision in the reader’s world-model. So taking some responsibility for the whole thing makes sense.
In sum: solemnly stating your (meta)uncertainty might give people the sense that you’re pretty certain about your (meta)uncertainty. If that is indeed what you want to communicate, great. Either way, learning how to modulate tone can add to your repertoire.
I’m not funny You don’t have to be! But you can work onadding choice in the style you use.
***
Here’s a quote from Eliezer to round it off, from Against Maturity (emphasis mine):
Robin is willing to tolerate formality in journals, viewing it as possibly even a useful path to filtering out certain kinds of noise; to me formality seems like a strong net danger to rationality that filters nothing, just making it more difficult to read.
Robin seems relatively more annoyed by the errors in the style of youth, where I seem relatively more annoyed by errors in the style of maturity.
And so I take a certain dark delight in quoting anime fanfiction at people who expect me to behave like a wise sage of rationality. Why should I pretend to be mature when practically every star in the night sky is older than I am?
Objections
Reading Objections
It’s hard to skim
I don’t think these are necessarily mutually exclusive, but we might have to work with alternative formats. But that’s a good idea anyway. Here’s an example for Bostrom’s Astronomical Waste.
It’s hard to distinguish sincere claims from hyperbolic ones
This is not really a problem if they’re being honest around it. I’m recommending being serious about your silliness, not letting go of your seriousness.
All of your favorite writers probably use it already to some degree. Scott Alexander for instance has explicitly talked about using “microhumor”, which can be a combination of hyperbole and hedging (or hypobole? Maybe that’s what this skill should be called.)
This can be more challenging for non-native speakers, in both the cultural and language sense. But that’s also a tradeoff with, for example, jargon usage.
People might get away with a response of “I was clearly joking” when you provide critique
Yes, they might. There is no language in which it is impossible to write bad programs. If there is such a confusion, they can be transparent about the point of the tone.
It’s hard to reference
There are two reasons for this. One is the “can’t skim” objection addressed earlier. The other is optics. I don’t have much to say if you’re balancing optics. Damn Moloch.
I find this style annoying/insulting
Check if it might be worth informing this aesthetic, given the benefits. Also, as noted earlier, a lot of your favorite writers might be using it already, so well that you don’t notice it. Which requires practice.
If you’re reasonably practiced at it and still think it’s net negative, I’m interested in hearing your objection!
Writing Objections
It’s hard to structure
I think this is true, but not incredibly so. The costs diminish. It might even come easier to you.
It looks weird/silly
I’d say in a good way, when done right. That’s a feature.
Also, formalese is the weird and unnaturally stiff one.
I’d rather just state my credences seriously instead of these acrobatics
Nate has a post called Confidence All The Way Up. It’s a pretty great post, about covering each layer of uncertainty with meta-certainty, all the way up. But it doesn’t have many pointers for communicating a summary of many layers succinctly. A facetious tone is a stickier and concise way of communicating your imprecision than writing out several layers of uncertainty by hand. It’s (arguably) less distracting. Importantly, it’s less painful, and so you’re more likely to actually do it. Additionally, it’s pretty well-known that precision of content alone does not translate to precision in the reader’s world-model. So taking some responsibility for the whole thing makes sense.
In sum: solemnly stating your (meta)uncertainty might give people the sense that you’re pretty certain about your (meta)uncertainty. If that is indeed what you want to communicate, great. Either way, learning how to modulate tone can add to your repertoire.
I’m not funny
You don’t have to be! But you can work on adding choice in the style you use.
***
Here’s a quote from Eliezer to round it off, from Against Maturity (emphasis mine):