I’m not really sure how shortform stuff could be implemented either, but I have a suggestion on how it can be used: jokes!
Seriously. If you look at Scott’s writing, for example, one of the things which makes it so gripping is the liberal use of amusing phrasing, and mildly comedic exaggerations. Not the sort of thing that makes you actually laugh, but just the sort of thing that is mildly amusing. And, I believe he specifically recommended it in his blog post on writing advice. He didn’t phrase his reasoning quite like this, but I think of it as little bits of positive reinforcement to keep your system 1 happy while your system 2 does the analytic thinking stuff to digest the piece.
Now, obviously this could go overboard, since memetics dictates that short, likeable things will get upvoted faster than long, thoughtful things, outcompeting them. But, I don’t think we as a community are currently at risk of that, especially with the moderation techniques described in the OP.
And, I don’t mean random normal “guy walks into a bar” jokes. I mean the sort of thing that you see in the comments on old LW posts, or on Weird Sun Twitter. Jokes about Trolley Problems and Dust Specks and Newcomb-like problems and negative Utilitarians. “Should Pascal accept a mugging at all, if there’s even a tiny chance of another mugger with a better offer?” Or maybe “In the future, when we’re all mind-uploads, instead of arguing about the simulation argument we’ll worry about being mortals in base-level reality. Yes, we’d have lots of memories of altering the simulation, but puny biological brains are error-prone, and hallucinate things all the time.”
I think a lot of the reason social media is so addictive is the random dopamine injections. People could go to more targeted websites for more of the same humor, but those get old quickly. The random mix of serious info intertwined with joke memes provides novelty and works well together. The ideal for a more intellectual community should probably be more like 90-99% serious stuff, with enough fun stuff mixed in to avoid akrasia kicking in and pulling us toward a more concentrated source.
The implementation implications would be to present short-form stuff between long-form stuff, to break things up and give readers a quick break.
I’m not really sure how shortform stuff could be implemented either, but I have a suggestion on how it can be used: jokes!
Seriously. If you look at Scott’s writing, for example, one of the things which makes it so gripping is the liberal use of amusing phrasing, and mildly comedic exaggerations. Not the sort of thing that makes you actually laugh, but just the sort of thing that is mildly amusing. And, I believe he specifically recommended it in his blog post on writing advice. He didn’t phrase his reasoning quite like this, but I think of it as little bits of positive reinforcement to keep your system 1 happy while your system 2 does the analytic thinking stuff to digest the piece.
Now, obviously this could go overboard, since memetics dictates that short, likeable things will get upvoted faster than long, thoughtful things, outcompeting them. But, I don’t think we as a community are currently at risk of that, especially with the moderation techniques described in the OP.
And, I don’t mean random normal “guy walks into a bar” jokes. I mean the sort of thing that you see in the comments on old LW posts, or on Weird Sun Twitter. Jokes about Trolley Problems and Dust Specks and Newcomb-like problems and negative Utilitarians. “Should Pascal accept a mugging at all, if there’s even a tiny chance of another mugger with a better offer?” Or maybe “In the future, when we’re all mind-uploads, instead of arguing about the simulation argument we’ll worry about being mortals in base-level reality. Yes, we’d have lots of memories of altering the simulation, but puny biological brains are error-prone, and hallucinate things all the time.”
I think a lot of the reason social media is so addictive is the random dopamine injections. People could go to more targeted websites for more of the same humor, but those get old quickly. The random mix of serious info intertwined with joke memes provides novelty and works well together. The ideal for a more intellectual community should probably be more like 90-99% serious stuff, with enough fun stuff mixed in to avoid akrasia kicking in and pulling us toward a more concentrated source.
The implementation implications would be to present short-form stuff between long-form stuff, to break things up and give readers a quick break.