I think its’ useful in exactly the context hereisonhand is asking about it “Hey guys I had this crazy idea, could it work at all?” is definitely both a legitimate and useful question, before saying “OK, we’ve determined it could work, does it make sense as a strategy to try.”
I think it’s dangerous to say “Don’t ask about the viability of your crazy ideas on LW, because we only care about the relative value of ideas.” I know this is in fact not what you were saying, but I could easily see my S1 interpreting this that way if this was the response I got to one of my first posts on the site.
Planting trees for the sake of the environment is not a crazy idea. It’s a mainstream idea that’s held by many people. You can buy a beer and in the process support protecting space in the rainforest.
hereisonhand spoke about him being able to extend that idea directly into “survival of the amazon rainforest was a significant climate change initiative”.
To me that suggests he sees viability as the same thing as it being a good action. It does look to me like reasoning about public interventions without the EA mental models that are needed in the context to reason well.
Yup, it was a quick thought I put to page and I will quickly and easily concede that 1) my initial idea wasn’t expressed very clearly, 2) the way it was expressed is best interpreted by a reader in a way that makes it non-sensicle (“what does it mean to say oxygen is produced” and I didn’t really tie my initial writing to climate change in the way I wanted too so what am I even talking about), 3) even the way I clarified my idea later mixed some thoughts that really should be separated out (viable != effective), and 4) I have some learning to do in the area of EA mental models and reasoning about public interventions. Not my best work.
Reflection:
I’m messing around with shortform as a way to kinda throw ideas on a page. This idea didn’t work out too well towards generating productive discussion as upon reflection, the idea wasn’t super coherent, let alone pointing towards anything true. However, I got a lot more engagement than I expected, which points to something of value from the medium. I think the course forward is probably to 1) keep experimenting with short form because I gain something from having my incoherence pointed out to me and there’s a chance I will be more coherent and useful in the future, and 2) maybe take 5 minutes to reread my shortform posts before I post them (just because it’s short form doesn’t mean it can be nonsense)
I think its’ useful in exactly the context hereisonhand is asking about it “Hey guys I had this crazy idea, could it work at all?” is definitely both a legitimate and useful question, before saying “OK, we’ve determined it could work, does it make sense as a strategy to try.”
I think it’s dangerous to say “Don’t ask about the viability of your crazy ideas on LW, because we only care about the relative value of ideas.” I know this is in fact not what you were saying, but I could easily see my S1 interpreting this that way if this was the response I got to one of my first posts on the site.
Planting trees for the sake of the environment is not a crazy idea. It’s a mainstream idea that’s held by many people. You can buy a beer and in the process support protecting space in the rainforest.
hereisonhand spoke about him being able to extend that idea directly into “survival of the amazon rainforest was a significant climate change initiative”.
To me that suggests he sees viability as the same thing as it being a good action. It does look to me like reasoning about public interventions without the EA mental models that are needed in the context to reason well.
Yup, it was a quick thought I put to page and I will quickly and easily concede that 1) my initial idea wasn’t expressed very clearly, 2) the way it was expressed is best interpreted by a reader in a way that makes it non-sensicle (“what does it mean to say oxygen is produced” and I didn’t really tie my initial writing to climate change in the way I wanted too so what am I even talking about), 3) even the way I clarified my idea later mixed some thoughts that really should be separated out (viable != effective), and 4) I have some learning to do in the area of EA mental models and reasoning about public interventions. Not my best work.
Reflection:
I’m messing around with shortform as a way to kinda throw ideas on a page. This idea didn’t work out too well towards generating productive discussion as upon reflection, the idea wasn’t super coherent, let alone pointing towards anything true. However, I got a lot more engagement than I expected, which points to something of value from the medium. I think the course forward is probably to 1) keep experimenting with short form because I gain something from having my incoherence pointed out to me and there’s a chance I will be more coherent and useful in the future, and 2) maybe take 5 minutes to reread my shortform posts before I post them (just because it’s short form doesn’t mean it can be nonsense)