To me it seems like a good idea to call out that we believe in a bunch of things that most people think are wacky. Intelligence explosion, cryonics, transhumanism, polyamory, circling. Better to filter out people who react strongly against those sorts of things from the get-go if you ask me.
I think it’s good to point out that the LW audience is far more contrarian than the median, and that arguments from conformity or authority or public relations or the absurdity heuristic aren’t received well. That said, I would not want to imply that there’s a belief litmus test, and also expect that a significant fraction of LW members don’t agree with / endorse / believe in at least one of these examples.
Agreed. However, I think you can sort of have your cake and eat it too here. I think you can:
Say that a lot of us believe things that most others see as wacky.
Give examples of those things.
Be clear that a significant number of people on LW don’t believe in a lot of that stuff.
Be clear that belief in that stuff isn’t expected from new members, or expected that you have to eventually reach agreement.
I think 4 is a really good point though and it didn’t occur to me when I wrote my initial comment, so thanks for pointing that out. At the same time, I do still endorse the “filter out people who react strongly against it” part. If 1, 2, 3 and 4 are all made clear and someone still, seeing that there’s a lot of belief in wacky ideas is turned off, I expect that they wouldn’t have been a good fit for the community anyway and so it’s better to “fail fast”.
I think it’s good to point out that the LW audience is far more contrarian than the median, and that arguments from conformity or authority or public relations or the absurdity heuristic aren’t received well. That said, I would not want to imply that there’s a belief litmus test, and also expect that a significant fraction of LW members don’t agree with / endorse / believe in at least one of these examples.
Agreed. However, I think you can sort of have your cake and eat it too here. I think you can:
Say that a lot of us believe things that most others see as wacky.
Give examples of those things.
Be clear that a significant number of people on LW don’t believe in a lot of that stuff.
Be clear that belief in that stuff isn’t expected from new members, or expected that you have to eventually reach agreement.
I think 4 is a really good point though and it didn’t occur to me when I wrote my initial comment, so thanks for pointing that out. At the same time, I do still endorse the “filter out people who react strongly against it” part. If 1, 2, 3 and 4 are all made clear and someone still, seeing that there’s a lot of belief in wacky ideas is turned off, I expect that they wouldn’t have been a good fit for the community anyway and so it’s better to “fail fast”.