Thanks for the long reply. My first experience with the site was to make a couple of comments which seemed “rational” to me at the time but were painfully (although not surprisingly) stupid in hindsight. The community told me, in a way that I now recognize as being as polite as possible, that I was being an idiot. At first I resisted, but after I started to dig into the site a little, it became clear to me that they were 100% right, and I deleted those early comments out of tremendous embarrassment. I say all this because it sounds like it might basically be the same experience you had, except that I came around more quickly.
I agree with most of your thoughts about the abundance of confusing local jargon, acceptance of strawmen, etc. It also might as well be explicitly laid out that everyone is expected to read all the sequences before they’ll be taken seriously. Which understandably seems really stupid and unfair the first time one bumps into it, but it might as well be stated.
I guess what confused me about your post was that the karma system and the way it’s used here has always made sense to me, so I’m not sure what about it you weren’t expecting. But then, that’s exactly why it would be great for you to write up the quickstart guide: Most of us can’t see the flaws and hurdles in the system (and therefore, can’t guide others around them) because we’re already used to it.
So good luck with this. I’d put it on the wiki, and when it becomes mature enough see to it that it gets linked to in any future “Welcome to Less Wrong” posts (which seem to be where newcomers making boneheaded comments like I did inevitably get directed).
Ditto. I think the more general rule is that you’re expected to have read the common background on a topic you’re posting about. It’s okay not to know anything about quantum mechanics as long as you don’t go posting about how everyone else has got it all wrong.
I think that’s less due to a community-accepted rule and more because you can’t get called out on not having the background reading if you don’t demonstrate that you lack it.
It’s still a good guideline for newbies to adhere to, though.
Well, I think it’s that you don’t need the background reading if you don’t demonstrate that you lack it. I don’t know much about brain surgery either, but nobody’s going to yell at me for that if I just want to read some articles about it or watch someone else discuss it. The problem that’s caused by newbies not reading the sequences is that they take up space in conversations without making valuable conversations. If they’re not doing that, it doesn’t matter what they merely know.
Thanks for the long reply. My first experience with the site was to make a couple of comments which seemed “rational” to me at the time but were painfully (although not surprisingly) stupid in hindsight. The community told me, in a way that I now recognize as being as polite as possible, that I was being an idiot. At first I resisted, but after I started to dig into the site a little, it became clear to me that they were 100% right, and I deleted those early comments out of tremendous embarrassment. I say all this because it sounds like it might basically be the same experience you had, except that I came around more quickly.
I agree with most of your thoughts about the abundance of confusing local jargon, acceptance of strawmen, etc. It also might as well be explicitly laid out that everyone is expected to read all the sequences before they’ll be taken seriously. Which understandably seems really stupid and unfair the first time one bumps into it, but it might as well be stated.
I guess what confused me about your post was that the karma system and the way it’s used here has always made sense to me, so I’m not sure what about it you weren’t expecting. But then, that’s exactly why it would be great for you to write up the quickstart guide: Most of us can’t see the flaws and hurdles in the system (and therefore, can’t guide others around them) because we’re already used to it.
So good luck with this. I’d put it on the wiki, and when it becomes mature enough see to it that it gets linked to in any future “Welcome to Less Wrong” posts (which seem to be where newcomers making boneheaded comments like I did inevitably get directed).
I’m taken reasonably seriously, I think, but I’m very clear that I don’t know the math and physics, and I don’t post about them.
Ditto. I think the more general rule is that you’re expected to have read the common background on a topic you’re posting about. It’s okay not to know anything about quantum mechanics as long as you don’t go posting about how everyone else has got it all wrong.
I think that’s less due to a community-accepted rule and more because you can’t get called out on not having the background reading if you don’t demonstrate that you lack it.
It’s still a good guideline for newbies to adhere to, though.
Well, I think it’s that you don’t need the background reading if you don’t demonstrate that you lack it. I don’t know much about brain surgery either, but nobody’s going to yell at me for that if I just want to read some articles about it or watch someone else discuss it. The problem that’s caused by newbies not reading the sequences is that they take up space in conversations without making valuable conversations. If they’re not doing that, it doesn’t matter what they merely know.